The economists and academicians who issued the statement, include A Vaidyanathan and Abhijit Sen (former members of erstwhile Planning Commission), Biswajit Dhar (JNU), Dilip Mookherjee (Boston University), Maitreesh Ghatak (LSE), Prabhat Patnaik (Emeritus Professor, JNU), and Thomas Piketty (Paris School of Economics).