It's election time in IIT Bombay and while it's massively fun just being a spectator it's even better when you are involved cause the stakes are so much more higher.
There are certain things that one realizes, at least I do so now, about the whole election process. Firstly all the winning candidates over the past two-three years fit into a certain space which can be given as a basic criteria for just standing for elections. In terms of hostels it has to be 2/3/4/13 or one has to be an IB member - MI or Techfest or one has to be gulti - one of the largest ethnic groups on campus that votes pretty much enmasse for its own.
Secondly, another thing that I feel strongly about is the lack of ideology. It does not mean that a candidates manifesto is useless but often one sees that there are almost the same ideas. I have always believed that politics is strongly connected to ideology and emotive issues. While there is a serious lack of the latter - the closest one ever got to that would have been bike ban/tumtum and now lan ban, ideology is also lacking because the election system here is not party based but rather individual based and hence it keeps changing year after year so there's absolutely no longevity. So what that does leave the candidate is with the need for good campaigning especially the public appearances as in the Insight videos and the Awaaz debate, a good decent image and simultaneously the need for good poll arithmetic. I am seriously ashamed as to how I so subscribe to the idea of dividing the electorate into groups based on states/language, cultural/sports interests and then use contacts to try and get these groups to support a candidate. 5-6 years back at home I would have been disgusted with such an idea but then here I realize that in the absence of ideology and emotive issues - electoral arithmetic is paramount. The initial basic criteria I defined is very much a part of this maths. Sometimes I wish elections here like the ones in DU or in UP - which actually has parties and ideology but then I'd rather not cause there politics tend to be the most important thing and it's very very dirty and violent. Not that politics in IITB is clean - it's not violent but it is certainly dirty with many cards being played, some overtly while the majority are played covertly. The maximum poltu happens during the last two days - the silent day and election day when alliances are formed and broken, back stabbings happen, unknown movers and shakers come into the picture and some candidates laugh while the others cry.
The process has just come into its own now and over the next 10 days a lot more things will surface and happen till the last vote is cast and the counting happens. Till then it's fingers crossed for the candidates whom you support and some smart back room manoeuvring.
There are certain things that one realizes, at least I do so now, about the whole election process. Firstly all the winning candidates over the past two-three years fit into a certain space which can be given as a basic criteria for just standing for elections. In terms of hostels it has to be 2/3/4/13 or one has to be an IB member - MI or Techfest or one has to be gulti - one of the largest ethnic groups on campus that votes pretty much enmasse for its own.
Secondly, another thing that I feel strongly about is the lack of ideology. It does not mean that a candidates manifesto is useless but often one sees that there are almost the same ideas. I have always believed that politics is strongly connected to ideology and emotive issues. While there is a serious lack of the latter - the closest one ever got to that would have been bike ban/tumtum and now lan ban, ideology is also lacking because the election system here is not party based but rather individual based and hence it keeps changing year after year so there's absolutely no longevity. So what that does leave the candidate is with the need for good campaigning especially the public appearances as in the Insight videos and the Awaaz debate, a good decent image and simultaneously the need for good poll arithmetic. I am seriously ashamed as to how I so subscribe to the idea of dividing the electorate into groups based on states/language, cultural/sports interests and then use contacts to try and get these groups to support a candidate. 5-6 years back at home I would have been disgusted with such an idea but then here I realize that in the absence of ideology and emotive issues - electoral arithmetic is paramount. The initial basic criteria I defined is very much a part of this maths. Sometimes I wish elections here like the ones in DU or in UP - which actually has parties and ideology but then I'd rather not cause there politics tend to be the most important thing and it's very very dirty and violent. Not that politics in IITB is clean - it's not violent but it is certainly dirty with many cards being played, some overtly while the majority are played covertly. The maximum poltu happens during the last two days - the silent day and election day when alliances are formed and broken, back stabbings happen, unknown movers and shakers come into the picture and some candidates laugh while the others cry.
The process has just come into its own now and over the next 10 days a lot more things will surface and happen till the last vote is cast and the counting happens. Till then it's fingers crossed for the candidates whom you support and some smart back room manoeuvring.
