Research Paper By Faculty Member Lands Ashoka University In Political Row
NDTV
The paper is authored by Sabyasachi Das, an assistant professor of economics at the university.
A research paper by a faculty member of Ashoka University has landed the prestigious private university at the centre of political slugfest between the Congress and BJP.
The paper, Democratic Backsliding In The World's Largest Democracy, is authored by Sabyasachi Das, an assistant professor of economics at the university.
Mr Das, while stating that the BJP's disproportionate win of closely contested constituencies is largely concentrated in states ruled by the party at the time of election, argues that the density of the incumbent party's win margin variable exhibited a discontinuous jump at the threshold value of zero. This, he wrote, implied that the BJP won disproportionately more in constituencies where it was the incumbent party and which were closely contested. The paper mainly explores evidence in favour of the election manipulation hypothesis, also arguing that manipulation is local at the booth level, and implying that manipulation could be concentrated in constituencies that have a high share of observers who are state civil service officers from BJP-ruled states.