The Fine Print Issue 2, August 2013 - Election special | Page 5

Shashank Bhadora

for the next one hour ten minutes. I even kept track of the time on my watch,” he said. According to him, his manifesto was so strong that the EC panel could not find A seemingly humble and soft- many points to question him on, and when they eventually did, most of the crowd had left so they missed out on listening to his defence. spoken candidate, Shashank Bhadora is one of the contestants for the post of General Secretary of the Students’ Union. An SU volunteer since his 1-1, Bhadora has been actively involved in most activities related to the Student Union including the facilitation of buying and selling of old trunks from psentisemites, organizing cultural and technical workshops, and compiling lists of seniors willing to sell books. However, two distinct flaws were pointed out in his manifesto during the debate. In making cycles available for public use, the number of cycles available at a particular time for most bhawans is just 12-15. Also, there needs to be someone present at all times to monitor the giving out of cycles. At present the BITSAA cycles have been rented out for the semester to students who have spent money on repairs as well; they would not be willing to part with their cycles so easily. As for the ordering of printouts online, the panel pointed out the problem of storage at S9. Searching for each student’s documents would be time consuming and would lead to crowds outside the shop. His cagey attempts to answer these questions left most members of the panel as well as the audience unconvinced. When quizzed about whether he was given a fair chance at the Audi debate, he felt he was not given enough opportunity by the panel to speak, and he repeatedly stressed that his silence had less to do with incompetence and was more of a testament to a strong and well-defined manifesto. Bhadora is optimistic about his chances because he believes that his manifesto is built in such a way that it will appeal to every section of the GBM and as such, regionalism and other similar factors will not play a role in affecting his tally. “It caters equally to boys, girls, undergraduates, MEites, everyone.” He is certain he can manage his duties as General Secretary along with the implementation of his manifesto because most of the groundwork related to it has already been completed and as such its execution will not divert most of his attention.

Although a cursory glance at his manifesto might suggest otherwise, Bhadora claims that he has spent the past three months brainstorming over it, compiling it and finishing all the related groundwork.

One of his marquee points is the ‘Bluetooth Proximity Marketing Device’. Financially feasible and having a speed of 120 kbps, this device will transfer notices onto your phone in just 15-20 seconds. Following the ban on paper notices in messes, this might benefit all those too lazy to log onto the SU portal. Another talking point is the SU Portal signing. With this system, you can order merchandise online, without the hassle of paying for something you didn’t order. Other points on his manifesto are Even as a final message, Bhadora chose to reiterate his manifesto points. His eyes the usual end semester cab booking portal and providing discounts on laptops. reflect a dogged determination, and this tenacity might just pay dividends come At the Auditorium Debate, Bhadora was, putting it in his words, sitting idle for more Election Day. than an hour. “I was asked one question in the initial round, after which I sat silent

Vaibhav Singh
Early morning (read 10 am), it turns out, is not a good time to meet an election candidate due to a skewed sleep cycle resulting from brain storming nights. However, three hours later when said meeting is rescheduled, the candidate comes across as calm and self-assured. Vaibhav Singh is indeed very confident about himself and his manifesto. The Audi Debate - Vaibhav emphatically says that he did a good job in the Audi Debate and effectively countered the questions posed to him by the Election Commision Panel. The debate has apparently worked in his favour in garnering support. It seems to have brought a change in his campaigning methods. While before, it was necessary to convince people of the validity of his manifesto points, after the debate, he says, it has become simply a matter of meeting more people. Manifesto – We quiz Vaibhav about some of his manifesto points to clear the confusion surrounding them.

swerable to him. In any case, he has decided to amend the given point by including that any student who does not divulge information to the Gen Sec will be answerable to the GBM, which meets twice a month. However there was a visible lack of preparation put into this thought as the idea did not seem well defined. Student Exchange Plan - Providing manpower – the two important words that aim to revive a four year old system. However, since this manpower will consist of students whose job will be to screen applications, we asked Vaibhav about the transparency in the proposed plan. Vaibhav countered this doubt by mentioning that all the prerequisites for a university will be put up on a website. Any student who feels that he/she has fulfilled all the requisites but has not been selected can directly contact the Prof-in-charge who will then use his discretion to resolve the issue. MB Redi – The trivial yet significant point that has been a manifesto point in the past and which some cynics say, will always be only a manifesto point. We ask Vaibhav how his plans of implementation are different from what has been tried and failed. He replies that he has no idea about the previous attempts but one of the reasons of failure could have been that the redi was planned to be outside MB. Security fears would now be allayed as his plan includes the redi inside MB itself. The drafting of the current manifesto –the original one was 82 point long, we are told – has been done after sieving through each point and is one which Vaibhav is proud of. He feels his achievement lies in making his manifesto cash independentthat most of the points require little or no cash budgets to be implemented. He also made sure to remind us a good many times how implementable all his points were. Why Gen Sec? - The question yields a description of his work in the field of inventory. His experience in his department, Rec and Acc gave him an idea of the work needed and so he opted to stand for Gen Sec.

The RTI Act – After he was stumped by the Election Commission Panel’s questions regarding the penalties, we felt it was necessary to ask him if he had A small chat about his days as election campaigner, and responsibility in general fine-tuned this particular point. Firstly, Vaibhav explains (using a crude analensues, during which one can’t help think – Vaibhav Singh sure can speak. Whether ogy) why he hadn’t anticipated any problems to crop up, “Denying the Gen his words will have their desired effect on the BITSian junta is yet to be seen. Sec is like a student telling his professor that he wouldn’t report his progress” – he had assumed, as if it were clearly mentioned in the constitution, that the Gen Sec was the supreme authority and everyone would be an-