ICSSR pulls up CSDS for 'data manipulation', FIR registered against Sanjay Kumar

Sanjay Kumar

Hours after the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) issued a show cause notice to the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), it asked the premier research group to disclose the source of funding for its studies on the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and the Maharashtra Assembly polls, according to a report by the Times of India.

The ICSSR also accused the institute of "deliberately engaging in data manipulation with a deliberate and malicious action to create a narrative with intention of undermining the sanctity of the constitutional authority such as the Election Commission of India."

The TOI report also notes that the action coincided with FIRs filed by Nagpur and Nashik police against Sanjay Kumar, psephologist and CSDS faculty member. Nagpur Rural Police booked him for allegedly spreading false claims of steep voter declines — 38.45% in in Ramtek and 36.82% in Deolali — through now-deleted posts.

This comes a day after Sanjay Kumar, a professor at CSDS Delhi had on Tuesday apologised for his X post on the Maharashtra elections, which wrongly reported a considerable fall in voter numbers in the two assembly seats compared to the Lok Sabha elections.

He said the error occurred due to misreading of a row by the data team. “The tweet has since been removed. I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation,” wrote Sanjay Kumar, who is among the most senior researchers at the independent think tank which is known for its analysis of elections.

Meanwhile, a case has been registered against Kumar by the district electoral officers (DEO) of Nashik and Nagpur in Maharashtra for allegedly misleading voters with wrong data on the Devlali and Ramtek assembly segments for the Lok Sabha and state elections held in 2024.

A CSDS study titled “How inclusive is EC’s special revision exercise?” presented a “biased interpretation” of the ECI’s SIR drive in Bihar and published media stories for “deliberately scandalizing and maligning the reputation and image” of the constitutional body, ICSSR said.