It is almost noon as we commence the interview Yash Goswami, the coordinator of Public Policy Club. Sitting in warm, erratic sunlight trickling in from the canopy of a tree at Skylabs, he started his soliloquy about how the gears turn inside the PPC machine. To eradicate political ignorance in the BITSian junta and kindle interest in studying the rules that govern them and their country, is the mission of PPC. With this objective in mind, they hope to popularise debates on public policy with their Oasis event.

Yash mentioned that the club was founded by a group of students that wanted to debate their understanding of all matters political, and is now the hub for UPSC aspirants, people with political inclinations, and people who just want a different debating experience. Interestingly, the club has refrained from commenting on intra-campus political activities due to the fear of being accused of taking sides. “The club is absolutely neutral, and only analyses political policies to present them in layman-friendly language on their blog to increase political literacy”, said Yash to clarify the club’s position.

This Oasis, the club is back with the second edition of ‘Turncoat’, a 3-minute impromptu debate. Participants are required to change their ‘for’ or ‘against’ stance on a given topic based on the whim of a judge, and duly defend their arguments in the process. Essentially, the event tries to engage people to debate against themselves.

The pre-fest work for ‘Turncoat’ has proven to be far less tumultuous for this new coordinator, than for the previous one.  Group discussions centered around ‘Turncoat’ were conducted throughout the semester, which helped the club uphold the quality of the event. While the club is toying with the idea of adding more events for Oasis, they do not plan to do so without gaining some more event management experience.