Folks! We are one!

Plagiarism claimed its first casualty. For those people who didn’t know the seriousness of the offense, Professor Rocky gave a shock. May be forcing the student council resign because its members were involved in this was not a grave punishment in hindsight (may be there is more in store), it sure is a start. Professor had a personal grudge which he doesn’t hide too well (institute party disturbs his daughter study for board exams-he requests student council to reduce decibel levels-council choose to ignore-he has a grudge) but plagiarism is not an offense that can be washed away by that. We cannot be a great institution by having brilliant students alone, a dose of high standards is definitely required. Result: Council resigns.

But what did perturb me was the fact that committees (Interest groups, clubs etc.) chose the occasion to settle their scores with the council. We have a system where committees are responsible to the council and council to none. You can’t just blame the council members as autocratic, the system breeds autocracy. The committees call a meeting and does a council-bashing (even if some of the grievances are genuine), under the guise of how to improve the system. We even have a moderator who writes down the wrongs of the council. Call it timing the meeting.

I’m not an ardent admirer of council; I will even say I’m indifferent. I came here to learn something in 2 years, not be part of politics. But hell, we elected the council, and we are responsible if it turns out like this. And these members are our own folks, who made a mistake (along with 2 dozen others) and have been humiliated by a professor who had a grudge (Professor didn’t disclose the names of 2 dozen other people), and we choose to embarrass them, to hit a nail in their coffin hours after that nasty public disclosure. Folks! Remove the veil of committees and councils; it’s never us vs. them. We are just a bunch of students who came here to be a part of a memorable batch.

May be its time to move on, to elect a new council but more importantly put a system in place for checks. Our nation has a vibrant democracy, why can’t our institute have one? Why don’t we have the runner up in the council election as an opposition member, to question the council about things like spends, activities, and rationale of their decisions and make them public (organized bashing!)? Why not have disclosures after 6 months about these things along the lines of Parliamentary budget session? If its there in the constitution, its time to follow it in letter and spirit.