The Fine Print Issue 2, August 2013 - Election special

Portals, portals everywhere. Your friendly neighbourhood election candidate has the perfect formula to solve his annual lack-of-manifesto-point creativity crisis. He’ll make you a portal; a portal that will fulfill all your worldly desires and be the answer to all that troubles you in life. A portal you can’t refuse. Well, at least that’s what they (him + cronies) will make it out to be. It is possibly the laziest manifesto point, and with good reason: no infrastructural hassles, minimum permission requirements, easy to connect with any day to day embuggerance, and extremely low initial input needed. From the Editor’s Desk The Auditorium Debate was expected to provide some respite from this daily drudgery of campaigner room calls and Election Commission notices, but that was not to be. However, we do applaud the EC panel’s move from audi-ragging to an actual Auditorium Debate: less showboating and intellectual navel-gazing, more detailed explanations and healthier discussion. It was always going to be a trade-off between theatrics and clarity, and we believe the panel took the right call. THE TEAM Dipto; IG, Angad, Manickam, Mohit, Pranita, Spriha, Siddhant, Tanya, Vishala, Shuja ; Ajay Ramya, Debolina, Kruti, Neel, Nithya, Passey, Prateek, Ritvik, Sahil D, Sahil K, Shalaka, Shashank, Shruti, Steffie, Viraj; Ananth, Anish, Madhusudan, Pratik, Rahul, Rusheen, Soumya, Srishti, Tanay, Tanmayee, Vijay; Introducing- We have a unique election culture here (or so we’d like to believe), and The ‘I’ll set up a webpage to end world hunger’ malaise in evidence here is however hard that might be for you to digest, the positives far exceed the a much deeper seated problem, with thousands of young, unsuspecting negatives. Apolitical candidates, no blaring slogans, no graffiti, and no minds afflicted every year. crude posters targeting other campaigns. Contrast this, if you will, with those intensely fierce, politically backed affairs in Delhi University and Nevertheless, election manifestos are getting saner year by year, much to other institutions we keep hearing about and you’ll understand my point our dismay. No longer are candidates proposing showers in our bathbetter. rooms, planning a Deejay party for first years, or planning electric bus routes around the campus. The lack of any visibly outrageous manifesto These institutions do have an entirely unshackled press, a level of develpoint has squeezed all joy out of this election season, and I hope that the opment we are yet to attain. But that is okay; we’ll continue working under scrutiny and hope that circumstances improve in the future. next batch does better. Bring out your pocket magic lamps and wish for an all seater stadium, a railway station at Pilani, and room delivery of food Maybe someone will have that as a manifesto point next year. from C’not. There isn’t even a single Dominos delivery proposal; it’s that bad. Danish, Deeksha, Gayatri, Lasya, Shubham Voting Guidelines The opening month of the odd semester at BITS Pilani comes with a generous dollop of activities that may seem novel for many of the students who start their college life, and not all of them are academic in nature. While the first half of the month is centred on club and department interactions, the latter half revolves around the elections to the various posts of authority in the Students’ Union, BITS Pilani. The President and General Secretary of the Students’ Union are elected by the students on campus, who will, at the same time, also vote for candidates who are standing for the post of Hostel Representative and Mess Representative at their respective hostel and mess. Each and every student is encouraged to exercise his/her right to suffrage, but to do so responsibly. So as to guide those new to the system, the English Press Club attempts to outline some major points that can be kept in mind while voting for a particular candidate. Consider a candidate’s manifesto carefully, and examine every point for feasibility. A candidate’s manifesto is an outline of his basic ideas for the betterment of the campus and all allied entities, so it is essential to keep the same in mind while making the choice of who you will vote for. Key points that a manifesto can be graded on include feasibility, cost efficiency and necessity. Bear in mind that flashy points may sound more attractive, but may not ever come close to realisation. Also, while feasibility is an important parameter, it should be kept in mind that points that ensure a long-term benefit to this campus are those that will require a decent amount of work both on the account of the candidate and that of the students he represents. 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The Fine Print Issue 2, August 2013 - Election special | Page 2