Over a plate of paneer noodles at FK, the EPC
had a talk with Ashutosh Pandey, one of the
candidates contesting for the coveted post of
General Secretary. Passionate and eager to
delineate his manifesto to the Fine Printreading BITSian junta, he began a run-through
of his points even before we could start with
our questions.
As he pointed out repeatedly throughout the
interview, the main agenda of his manifesto is
to make the Union Council accountable at each
level to restore the faith of the GBM. Measures
such as another Auditorium Debate at the end
of the each semester, where the President/
General Secretary will face the BITSian junta
again on the basis of his or her performance
and not just on the promises made as it
happens in Audi Debate, he feels, can help
bring about this change. A not-so-clichéd point
we came across was the proposal to set up a
manifesto reviewing committee to analyze
previous years' manifestos to investigate the
possible implementation of some manifesto
points.
wizened
BITSian
does now),
that
fancy
points
are
usually
infeasible
and meant,
not for actual implementation, but only for
attracting votes. To quote him, "I could
promise that I would have a bullet train
running from Pilani to Delhi, and that might
interest some juniors, but it's not right!" The
points on his manifesto arise from his personal
experiences and therefore, he believes, that he
is the right person to tackle these problems.
When asked why he was contesting, he told us
that he had three main motives - to improve
the deteriorating culture of the elections, to
show people the true value of a promise and
the integrity it dictates and to make postholders so accountable that even H-Reps can
be made to step down if the majority feel that
they are not keeping up their promise to the
students. In response to a question about his
campaigning strategies, he said his main
strategy was talking to people himself (rather
than have his campaigners do it for him) so he
could build a better rapport with them. He
thinks that his is the right way to go about it, a
way which would eliminate regionalism and
other such baseless biases that usually feature in
the elections.
Then there was talk of TT tables and a redi in
MB, promises of revamping the cycle club (déjà
vu, eh?) et al. Creating online portals is a point
everyone has had in their manifesto and
Ashutosh is no exception. He also wants to
create a study group of people preparing for
the Civil Services exams and to get students
coached by trained professionals. And finally,
he wants to conduct workshops like Art of
Living & Yoga classes in SAC to improve the The Informational Seminar was a good
general health of the students.
initiative, he feels, which provided an equal
platform to every candidate for reaching out to
Manifesto and promises aside, throughout the all the students. He felt that he had had a good
conversation (and during the Audi debate as Seminar, and expressed confidence. In brief
well) one could sense the undertones of a rebel comments about the Audi debate, he said that
(against the system, if you may) coming from it had gone well for him. And does he have a
this contender. Change and accountability in shout-out to the BITSian junta? "Do turn up to
the existing system seemed to be the sigil of his vote," he says.
manifesto. He opines (like many a cynical and