With election season in full swing, the English Press Club (EPC) sat down with Pulkit Bhardwaj, a candidate for the President of the Students’ Union.
Pulkit began by talking about his motivation for contesting the post. He said that his YouTube channel, The Pilani Balak, which he started a few years ago as a platform for him to carry out initiatives such as collaborations with online tutoring platforms. The success of these collaborations, which were aimed at making the general public’s path to BITS smoother, gave him an immense amount of satisfaction. His work in the Students’ Union Executive Committee (ExComm) drew inspiration from this and was aimed at ‘giving back to the student community.’ He stated the continuation of this work as his primary motivation to enter student politics and contest the elections.
His work in the ExComm, however, was not the only engine he had on his bandwagon this year. His prominence on social media made him an instantly recognisable face on campus, especially among the junior batches. While he admitted that this was a nice advantage to have, he believed that in recent times his work and initiatives had cultivated a separate image for him. In his second year, he was ‘focusing on Pulkit Bhardwaj, the Executive Committee member personality [sic].’
His belief that he was ‘more deserving of the post’ than other candidates from the ExComm stemmed from his work having encompassed three initiatives that ‘were never fulfilled by any ExComm member,’ namely the installation of sanitary pad vending machines, overnight co-working spaces, and installation of benches. As the conversation moved to the sanitary pad vending machines, he admitted that most of them had not been in working condition in recent times. After being questioned on this during the Information Seminar, he had since spoken to the vendor and claimed that they would soon work again.
Pulkit further admitted that his auto rickshaw trunk transport initiative was insufficient since the fleet consisted of just two vehicles, but he assured the GBM that an improved service was on the cards. Similarly, he elaborated on his proposed trunk management system. A pickup and drop facility for everyone’s trunks had been discussed and had reached a meaningful stage of negotiations. Additionally, room renovations which entailed the addition of mirrors and table lamps had been approved by the administration, he claimed. He then spoke about his plans to ‘digitise’ the reimbursement sheet maintained by the President and the Corroboration and Review Committee (CRC) to enable the viewing of claim status in real time.
Addressing a certain letter that had been circulating on social media, he said that the reason he posted it on his private channels was that certain rumours about his academic credentials were doing the rounds and he simply wanted to lay them to rest. He stated, however, that he did not have an idea of how it became public.
Finally, a central issue for all BITS campuses—the release of grade boundaries and histograms came up for discussion. Detailing his discussion with the administration, he concluded that their concern was the failure of grievance mechanisms if said data was made public. He fired off his frustration, ‘If there is a fire outside and you close the door, that is not a solution to the problem.’ Despite this, he claimed that the administration had agreed to a discussion on two of his three proposed points on this issue.
To conclude the conversation, Pulkit remarked that considering the work done by each candidate in the past should be an integral part of deciding one’s vote. He trusted the GBM and was sure that everyone would vote wisely.