The Amphitheatre debate for the Sports Council Elections, held on the 8th of November, witnessed a heated debate between the two candidates for Sports Secretary—Anshul Khatkar and Aishani Chakraborty. At the session, both candidates were questioned on their manifesto points by the Sports Council and the GBM.

An increase in expenditure for building synthetic tracks, an indoor swimming pool, and procuring tarpaulin sheets for lawn tennis were some of the major agendas put forward by Aishani. She proposed to generate revenue for all these expenditures through the alumni network and Project Parivartan, but failed to answer the sports council’s concerns regarding the practicality of her project, given that schemes such as Project Parivartan are often met with major delays.

Anshul, on the other hand, did not propose any major changes in the already existing sports budget. He proposed to build an alumni network for sports with help from the Alumni Relations Cell to rebuild the squash court and construct synthetic tracks. A major scheme he proposed was to invite athletes from dedicated training institutes to intern as coaches for the BITSian teams. However, concerns regarding the credibility of these coaches and the practicality of this scheme were highlighted. 

On being questioned about their BOSM plans, both the candidates broadly proposed the same mechanism besides minor changes—the only exception to this being Aishani’s idea to implement a mandatory caution payment for outstation participants. This suggestion was, however, met with unanswered questions about how it would affect participation figures. The session ended with a round where real cases were presented to candidates to test their decision-making skills.

The elections saw Anshul Khatkar get appointed as the new Sports Secretary.

The elections themselves—which were held on the 10th of November—saw Anshul Khatkar get appointed as the new Sports Secretary. While speaking with the EPC about his plans, he emphasized the importance of inculcating a good sports culture on campus. Organizing iBOSM throughout the second semester, with a proper ceremony to honour the winners, he believes, will serve the purpose of encouraging participation for the event. Introducing a sports website created by the SU Tech Team is also one of his major agendas. Another of Anshul’s major goals is to plan well in advance and bring about concrete changes, not just viewing his post as a PoR for the resume. 

Talking about his plans for BOSM, Anshul expressed his intention to expand the participating teams to technical colleges instead of limiting it to colleges under DU. He also aims to achieve a timely arrival of inventory for BOSM by starting work over the summer break. On a parting note, Anshul said that he hopes he is able to implement the changes that he wished to see when he first came to campus, and that more people on campus get the motivation to be involved in sports.