I lost the elections for the post of President of BITS Students' Union. Whom did I loose to? NONE!
Now that makes for a great story for my grand children and my silver jubilee BITSAA reunion. What I would not tell them is
- I should have got my nomination canceled due to serious violation of electioneering norms
- I should have threatened juniors to vote for me (just like NOONE threatened people to vote for NONE)
- I should have anticipated that the Institute will any ways not take disciplinary action right away, if at all, on my "vote for Rachit else you'll be responsible for Rachit committing suicide" campaigners. It would only inflame the situation
- I should have leveraged my campaigning ban for a day to gain sympathy of how the Election Commission was anti-me
- I should have influenced voters in the queue, campaigned even after campaigning time, chanted slogans outside polling booths. The Election Commission was too busy and understaffed (to an outside non neutral observer). And yeah they had never seen this situation of massive anti-campaigning and "vote for none" sentiment before.
- I should not have had a higher CGPA than NONE or any achievements. People are jealous. Especially, the intellectuals from elite quarters
- I should have finally tried to amend the constitution. So that the candidates whose nominations had been canceled once could contest in re elections.
What I'll still tell my grand children is once the results were declared by the Dean of Students Welfare Division and 200+ people broke into a vulgar dance of joy at NONE's victory, I could walk back alone. Right through the middle of a topless mob shouting Singh's King. With my head held high. I told myself "Keep Walking"
And yeah, in case your Google Alert didn't pick BITS Pilani from the Title of the blog, here it goes : BITS Pilani, Pilani, BITS.
(And Yeah)^2 in case you are not a BITSian, this is a victory of democracy. We have a much needed NONE option in all our polls.
57 reactions:
I was no were near Pilani when this happened. All I can say is Tough Luck mate !
Grandchildren? Really?
Also, it wasn't a 'vulgar dance of joy'. Turns out a few people were genuinely happy to see you lose. And not all the people dancing there were hardcore Nitesh supporters. Yes, the opposing camp didn't play by the rules. I don't know of you did, and irrespective of whether you did or didn't. a large number of people don't think that you did. Anyway, for what it's worth, I don't think you would have lost a mano-a-mano election. You lost because too many bitsians got trigger happy about the 'none of these' option.
And now for something not entirely unconnected:
"I didn't think that I had a debt to pay, till they came and took all I had left away."
- Mike Shinoda
@Atin You seem to know everything.
Democracy assumes that people are mature and won't be excited about rights without understanding their responsibilties. But come on we are BITSians, what assumptions? what maturity? we have 'found' a new right and we shall 'try' it and have some 'fun'. why so serious?
Democracy is a system designed for people who can truly appreciate and understand the basis of their rights and more importantly, their duties within this system. Democracy is not arbitrary; it is cumulative of all that is required to be a human being. Subverting the system using democracy as an excuse is executing a double fraud on the system. Democracy is definitely not an experiment - it is, on the other hand, a system where everyone understands the importance of choice and exercises it with his full consciousness. Democracy is not devoid of conscience - exercising your choice purely because you are know about the rightness of your choice should alone convince you to vote. Physical force is alone not a roadblock to democracy; so are subtler methods like fraud and slander. Lastly, democracy implicitly assumes honesty on the behalf of the participants and honesty does not have degrees - people can be guilty by association. If you want to tell your grandchildren anything, tell them this. And also that you fought a good fight.
I have been through some real good times in BITSian politics. Cynics may term them as bad and even steps backwards, but I look upon them as steps of change (inspired by u kno who!)
I have seen two prez candidates engaged in a physical brawl in c'not and subsequent election of the first female pres of SU. Boos and jeers followed the results. But this led to MB and Mal getting remembered for more than just the gate calls.
I have seen a sitting president and gen sec removed from office! The first steps of accountability by SWD & EC & CRC
I have seen a complete breakdown of the system when candidates brazenly campaigned based on caste and religion and spent 40-50k in 1 week for votes!!!
And I have seen a fixing of an election foiled even before the first vote was cast!
And I thought I had seen it all!
Truly, Rachit, you may have a good cgpa and you might have many many achievemnts to your name, but in BITS you will be remembered as the prez who lost to none!
The few reasons you have listed down are the same things I came up with when I lost a h-rep election by a single vote. But I could still participate in the celebration ceremony of the winner and we cut the cake together.
What finally matters is how well Oasis and Apogee and all the other events are conducted and how the outsiders look upon BITS when they come in.
Your thoughts brought back all those feelings I had the day I lost the election, but it also made me remember the realisations I had about politics in BITS after that.
What I wud tell my grandchildren is that.. BITS truly lost a gem of a candidate as its prez..
Tough luck!
@tough luck: why blame what "propogaters of free will" did on luck. Poor luck, it already has too much on its plate.
well who lost and who won ! i dont think anyone of us can answer that question for long.
all i know is BITS has lost an oppurtunity to have a person like you as its president.
And i believe its not about your CGPA,scholarly achievements etc.etc. rather its about "The Vision" .Something which all of us deep down just supress due to our fears;
its about the courage you have shown to put up your hand to make things better which am sure most of us would never do or even think to.
One thing i would like to add is that try and get the view from the other side too ; it may be of great help in future.
your quote:What I'll still tell my grand children is once the results were declared by the Dean of Students Welfare Division and 200+ people broke into a vulgar dance of joy at NONE's victory, I could walk back alone. Right through the middle of a topless mob shouting Singh's King. With my head held high. I told myself "Keep Walking"
One thing must be clear from the above part of your writing. You are an INDIVIDUAL Acheiver not a FORCE. Thats the reason y u lost!!!
In a country where people let their sentiments overpower their decision making capabilities, a thing like this happening only confirms the belief.
No one emerged out as the winner here, but surely we can pinpoint one loser : BITS, pilani. ..
@ Rachit: I'm sorry I wrote my first comment like a smartass. I'm having a huge superiority complex of late and I'm yet to get over it.
I really hope you tell whoever matters to you about how when you could have easily become a deserving cynic, you didn't.
Very few people can shape their lives against what their environment plots them to become. I hope you'll be one of them.
@trane: "INDIVIDUAL Acheiver not a FORCE". Spot on. An individual achiever with just the right qualifications, just the right vision, just the right composure n just the right principles to trigger a change for the better. Wat confuses me is the question, whom to blame? :the individual or the mass that so ignorantly failed to recognize the individual.
i think u won it,rachit...
keep walking.
I was watching when those people gathered in front of your wing shouting slogans at night. Really this is stupidity and nonsense especially after considering the fact that we are supposed to be intellectually the top 10% of the people of our age group in the country.
On one hand I think that why to take things to the heart on a matter like SU elections when there are already bigger questions in life to answer.
On other hand I feel that there will always be people who will whine at the banana peel even though they would be the ones to throw the peel...
You know what you are... that's more than sufficient... keep moving forward.
i agree with sarkar.. put it behind and move on. life has a lot more to offer a brilliant guy like you i'm sure :)
move on mate. you tried. our visions stand.
I'd rather not express my views on the process or the outcome... as an individual I'm bound to be biased.
What I will point out, however, is the way people have responded to it.
Its interesting how people with little or absolutely no knowledge about things manage to form opinions about them... and start believing them so fanatically that they openly express them.
We see, we hear, we form an opinion and we speak out, often without even giving it much thought.
Like the few gentlemen here who have blatantly told you and tried to make you realize that you are a loser... venting out their frustration without realizing what they are saying, possibly in the hope of attracting attention.
And I presume most of them don't even know you that well either... do they?
The truth is that in a crowd of seemingly sensible and fair people, the basic human tendencies of personal grudge, the desire to get importance and a susceptibility to brainwash dominate... and they will always do.
As pointed out above, Democracy is a system designed for people who can truly appreciate and understand the basis of their rights and more importantly, their duties within the system.
Most of us, with our restricted thinking capabilites, clearly don't deserve such power.
But then... who does!
I am no exception.
... And here is my biased opinion...
As an individual you have good and bad qualities, but what you have envisioned and achieved in the past one month... is one of the most daring things I have seen in my short and inexperienced life.
In a world full of emotionally driven minds who are ready to believe what they see and hear, You have dared to stand upto your own belief... be it or be it not driven by a selfish need.
For that, and for the person I've known you as, Rachit... I respect You.
You have the right to hold your head high and walk through any crowd, let alone a bunch of losers celebrating what they think is their victory.
@ Atin : I have immense respect for your thought process. And if you have realized how not to be a cynic, I can't be happier! I have been a cynic and it feels amazing (or felt amazing) when I felt that you can actually change things.
@Keeki : We miss you and Gum for cheering us up!
@Jay: Thanks for the comment. I hope Election Commission does something to counter understaffing.
@ Ja-Kaas aka Akash : I'll talk to the other side for sure
@Amruth : Thanks
Well, this is the time EC should seriously introspect.. Its the failure of the EC, which couldn't control whats happening!!
Din't they knew what all was happening or is it that they felt it was according to democratic norms. It seems absurd to me that a EC guy comes up here and explains democracy... Well what all happened was not in democratic terms and this happened because EC was not upto the mark or EC is frightened about their own existence....
I have been involved in the BITS democratic norms for quite sometime and I always felt that EC was doing a good job, though sometyms I had decisions against me. But not this time...
chalo Rachit u hav gained a lot in the process.. I always beleive in this "any work u do, either u win or loose, ultimately u GAIN!!!!!"
cheers
Sandeep Goud
Dude, i am not here to show sympathy and definitely not here to tell you hard luck. You failed rachith..you did not anti-campaign, you did not assasinate your opponent's character saying "he has a beer in one hand and a cig in the other" , you did not shout slogans, you did not manhandle the opposite camp. You are a looser for not having done all this. This is how it goes and this is how it has to be done.
A system is perfect only when it has tough scrunity at every stage and sadly this year the EC has failed at everything. Its even more embarassing to see all this happen in BITS, which constitutes the creamy layer of the country.
So the next time you plan for something like this, i suggest you better analyse your fit rather than looking at you credentials.
It is clear from the above comments that the election commission has failed miserably in conducting a fair and just elections.
I personally feel that the EC should have canceled the entire election process as such for the way it went on. Right from the audi debate to the polling everything was conducted in the worst possible manner. When the EC was questioned about the only reply one could get is "Machan everything went out of control”
The EC had done really well in the past, but after this elections they should be ashamed of themselves for letting all the foul play happen in a transparent manner without any fear.
DOES BITS REQUIRE AN EC TO CONDUCT ELECTIONS?? is the question that every BITSian should be having if they had seen how the elections were conducted in the past.
Playing politics is a part of the elections process and it has been happening for years, but Playing cheap politics is not expected from BITSians.
Rachit you lost not just because you did not anti-campaign, you did not assassinate your opponent's character saying "he has a beer in one hand and a cig in the other" , you did not shout slogans, you did not manhandle the opposite camp or you did not influence the voters in the queue, its just because th EC was conducting the elections.
and dude if you still want to serve the BITSians just go ahead with dissolving the EC.
NOTE:- Jay sorry for going against EC but "The truth is always bitter"
Whatever you say hard luck or politics, it doesn't even matters. Everyone knows how elections in BITS were fought in past, everyone knows to what extent politics is being played in it and still you are saying I was thrashed because I played fair game.
I don't know you played fair or not but i have seen in last elections that no one can won in these bloody elections playing fairly.
Dude I don’t have any harsh feelings for you but I am suggesting you should have researched on this subject before playing this game of power.
“None wins” it does not shows, you were unlucky or nitesh played politics. It only shows the blunder of EC and the commitment level of nitesh to fight for injustice.
@ Jacky : Injustice? Wow!
@ Jacky again : I did 'knows' how elections happen in BITS Pilani. I had my fair share of research. But, I wasn't a coward like you to sit back and say this is how things happen and will happen
whatever i felt i said so because i had that experience of politics in last election when hitesh mathur was candidate and he lost due to politics.
dude this doesn't shows my timidness or your braveness, this shows the truth of system and no one can change it single handed
Hey rachit.. i dont kno who you r.. but havin seen all these comments and answers.. i just would like to say one thing.. ITS ALWAYS EASY TO ADVICE R COMMENT R SUGGEST BUT ITS VERY TOUGH TO ACTUALLY BE IN THE REALITY.. so stay light hearted for all these comments n suggestions.. have fun and njoy your bistian life.. :)
nice, funny article, enjoyed reading it! but dont understand the intent of all these verbose comments and vehement reactions though, they must have misunderstood the purpose of your writing this article, why so serious? im sure u enjoyed the elections too, watevr the result its fun aint it?! wen u tell ur grand children u can afford to name "no one" and his elite support cast. they need heros to look up to.
hey Rachit...buddy u seem to be very good at blaming ur loss on others...its ur negligence that landed u in what u r today. The way your competititor saw you as a threat, you never saw him. Anti campaigning worked for him but you were too polite in curbing it. Its time to understand that there are no absolutes when it comes to politics or power. Good or bad is not defined here. Perhaps if you were in your competitor's shoes you would have also done the same. It was your foolishness that you let all this happen without being able to do anything about all that anti-stuff happening out there. You were probably waiting for somebody else to do your work, dats bad... Sorry for such a serious comment, but I really felt You didnt deserve to loose against "None of these." Probably the only take for you from these elections should be a lot of life lessons..:)
The truth is that neither of the camps believed till the declaration of results that NONE can win.
I don't know about others and I am not justifying myself either but we thought around 800 of us going for none will make some statement in a system in which many things go unanswered.
The immediate fear,anyways, is that we are going to have contestants we don't really want to vote for.We,1384 of us,are perhaps guilty for the same for denying the opportunity to perhaps the best in 44 years.
All I can say is that failure doesn't mean the very motive behind was wrong.If you still believe that you were right,CONTINUE.Quite too often ,we are awestruck about the great stories the heroes in which have continued after repeated failures only to emerge victorious in a fashion history has remembered forever.What we fail to realize is that at times,we get our moment of greatness too.May be this is your moment.
One more thing,statistics hide more than what they reveal.On an average,200-300 votes are in favor of none each year.This year,for an example, there were 231 for Gen .Sec. elections.Without loss of generality we can assume that the sympathy votes which you lost and the votes which came from the other camp to you in the environment of uncertainty cancel each other.
So,I quite agree with the fact If it were the fight b/w two persons,you could have been the winner.
I have some bitter things to say too.But I hope that we can always discuss those on THAT bench in THAT class.
hey jack!!!
donn want this to b a personal war, but just want to know what probs u had in the last year elections and wat sort of "politics" are u complaining about??
could u b a bit clear bcos i juss want to know!!!!
after what happened on 1st i think that the post of president doesn't deserve a candidate like you so dont worry we are always with u .
--Mayank
@rachit
ja-akaas means jatin here :).
"FUN". That three letter word that is used to justify everything in this place.Heck, we've studied our asses off for two years before getting to this place, now BITS better make it worth our while. However in the absence of banquets with accompanying orchestra and exotic Arabian dancers (or, going by current demographic trends,cattle fairs and wrestling matches)what better way to extract the fun debt than by making a mockery of all rules "the esablishment" lays down.When kewl anti-establishment "anarchists" , vengeful sore losers, hibernating psentisemites, academically and otherwise frustrated junta band together to "have some fun" they give a glimpse of the larger affliction, soon to be refleced in spheres larger than college politics. Thank your stars you don't have to answer for them.
Well i have said enough about this.All I can say is, BITS does not deserve you and you do not deserve this.I was just horrified by the impulsiveness by which people took their decisions.To think BITSians can do this reflects poorly on what India has become too.Could it be that we are not principled?
Read my last post
http://abhiramj.blogspot.com/
@Jatin : Thanks
@Nilanjana : Yeah, now I am having fun. A lot of it.
@Abhiram : I don't think BITS doesn't deserve a good President. I hope in re elections right people win
Like i said before, you may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. But the bigger question is- do these so called 'educated, intelligent BITSians' deserve a second chance? I think not!
interesting article @ http://blog.sriram.me
Hey Rachit
I personally feel its not just credentials which make a good leader.
Its also the qualities which are required. I would suggest u not to make the issue of u being lost to no one a serious one. It also means that u'll loose against any one..
And the slogans that's a way to express victory, it would have been the same had u won. Never be a sore loser.
It was simply too good to be true. Finally we'd have a Prez who could make a speech that wouldn't have us squirming, whose "thought process" was adjudged "alright" by another travesty of an EC panel (playing everything- bully, psychologist, rhetoric-addict, in turns, but a dispassionate debater.),a prez who understood the system, a person who's never been an outsider, never been a spectator, a person who needed more than a bunch of six offstage semi-asleep jackassess to lose composure.It was simply too good to be happen. Of course,we had to blow our one chance at electing someone decent for a change,of course you had to lose.
I didn't know whether you played clean or not. i didn't care. i dind't know whether you were doing it for your resume. I didn't care. Nothing mattered to me while voting for you. I'd never been more convinced that I was voting right, in spite of all the accusations (justified and otherwise) and doubts and slander surrounding our candidature. After three years of settling for the best among the worst, I was happy. I don't know if this might offer any consolation, or even if consolation is what you are looking for. I'm not going to say stuff like your marooned footprints on this forsaken shore will hearten some other brave guy trying to achieve what you didn't -to quote someone else, be an individual force against an unthinking mass and an incompetent authority. I'm not going to give you a civics textbook definition of democracy to pass on to your grandkids. I want to know why you refused to contest again.
Hey Rachit! I think i am more pissed off than you ( if you are at all). Last year's elections, or to be specific the candidate who won, or rather the candidate who was CHOOSEN by the Bitsians came as a serious blow to me. Till than i had a thought that maybe illiteracy is one reason why Indian junta chooses politicians who don't seem to know constitution or care for people's rights but can shell lots of money to provide them free booz and fags. Because, these people don't have brains, hence, they can't think as to who is the right candidate. And this year's election results have shattered my pride of studying in the country's finest institution. It has proved that BITS,Pilani is a conglomerate of good brains, who are only good for writing a few lines of code or debugging, but not great minds. Expecting such a crowd to appreciate greatness, CHANGE or revolutionary thoughts will be foolishness.
So, i feel its good you didn't win because BITSians don't deserve a candidate like you.
@people posting comments: Anyone who believes in Indian Democracy can write to me at chandan1312@gmail.com. Let me see how many of you believe in Indian democracy.
@Ramya : I chose not to re contest because I have turned selfish. Why should I while away one year of my BITSian life for a flippant GBM, a helpless Election Commission and my institute which did not react? I was not ready to sacrifice everything again for people who do not deserve a second chance.
@Chandan : I am not pissed with anyone except the institute which chose not to react. And of course with a certain Mr. Sahu. Though, that we'll settle when you come back next semester :D
For once we had an election where we really didn't have to choose between the lesser of the two evils (I call it the L.O.T.T.E effect). From last years election where Hari won only because of the LOTTE effect (Kamat was the obvious candidate neday), things looked very different this time round with a very clear choice between the two. Unfortunately the cancellation of Nitesh's candidature, the least that should have been done, backfired but then there is only the institute and the EC to blame. The truth behind the rubish that was happening in the Nitesh camp should have been out in the open. That would have probably drilled some sense into the 'trigger happy' GBM.
And for all you experienced and seasoned 'PANDITS' out there who knew the entire time how it was supposed to be done, I'm sorry but it seems you've always got it wrong and what's worse is that you've never wanted it to change. And I guess that's because a change to non regional, clean and issue based politics would have made you useless in the political scenario. For once we had someone who was willing to do things differently and the least you could have done was respect him for that. Someone has to be brave and take a different stance and bring about the change politics in BITS desperately needs! Rachit may have lost but I hope his way of campaigning goes a long way from here.
:P
Just wanted to be the one to post the 50th comment. And yes, I'd also like to take the stage to welcome all of us back to our normal lives, where we'll continue dreaming about changing things around us, albeit with this hindsight to help us. And please blog about something else now, I'm scared this might just go upto 100 comments.
On a serious note, putting comments on a post is so easier than doing the real thing. Can make that statement as I seem to be amongst the few to have done both of them. Keep at it. Cheers.
Keep emotions aside, play it like a game. (sorry, could not resist) And i agree with pandey..very few belonging in the category pandey just mentioned, just wish there were more.
hmmnnn ...... You expect to have grand kids in 25 years !..... @ the age of 45 !!!! .... that too , old enuf to hear your college stories??.... Intersting
@Delusional wannabe supporters
Nicely done Bitsian Buffoons.One moment of reality check and you go on from blaming the basic structure of democracy itself to staining the intellect of fellow Bitsians , and yes, good English doesn't go with biased dud brains .Try to figure out what really went wrong ...
@Rachit
I am an ex-BITSian ('01 batch) and was closely involved with all aspects of the elections.
1st year - Lost as any other fresher would be!! Wooed by all candidates, with parties, and long sessions of gyaan.
2nd year - Campaigning, deal making, threatening, fought with a good friend and made up, etc. Saw the initial candidates' nominations get cancelled, and BITS get its first female prez, and the procession following it.
3rd year - EPC's coverage of the entire thing (had stayed away in my second year).
4th year - The Audi panel, volunteered during elections, helped the constitution review committee.
From my experience, I can say that NONE winning is not a bad thing. I personally promoted the idea to the then election commission. If most people (in a democracy) feel that they do not want any of the candidates as their representative, so be it.
However, this does not reflect on the ability of the candidates and feel that the fact that you stood for the elections shows that you do indeed care. And that is what matters.
@Goyal : Liked your blog ;)
As far as elections are concerned, I am happy with the experience.
@Rachit
It must have been. Elections were fun in my times. Thank god I never was a candidate ;) The EPC and the Audi panel was all I could do!!
About the blog. That one began while still at BITS, and was the place for many verbal duels with one legendary Rahul Misra - now on http://letsgoexploring.blogspot.com while I track my musings at http://www.akgoyal.com
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