The English Press Club interviewed Sanskar Agrawal, one of the three candidates standing for the post of General Secretary in the upcoming Students’ Union (SU) Elections. Currently in his third year of studying Civil Engineering, he is a member of the Operations and Strategies Club, PARC, Nirmaan, NSS, and serves as the head of the SSMS Technical Team.
He explained that his motivation to contest the post arose during his time working in the Executive Committee in his second year where he observed problems pertaining to irregular fee add-ons, hygiene in hostels, and those raised by the non-administrative staff of BITS. He added that if elected as the General Secretary, he would be able to directly listen to such grievances of students and staff and work to resolve them. He further mentioned that his fondness for social service and managerial roles made it the ideal post for him. Sanskar added that he had worked on a few big initiatives such as the SU Courier Service and handled many small responsibilities during his second year.
Sanskar shared that he had a healthy relationship with his competitors. When asked what distinguished him from them, he stated that he was standing in the elections purely out of goodwill. He added that he had an affable relationship with a large number of people on campus who believed that if elected into power, he would continue to be responsive to their problems. Promising to adhere to this belief, he also added that he would prioritise being available for everyone at any time. However, he mentioned that he would not be able to devote much of his time during fests but would be encouraging clubs, departments, and associations to give their best effort.
When asked what he would do differently than the past holders of the position, Sanskar mentioned that he would like to focus on addressing concerns raised by the various workers in BITS. He explained that they had been working in BITS for nearly 30 years and hence had come to expect certain things from the SU. He highlighted the lack of a suitable platform for them to express their issues and said that he would like to fix that. Additionally, he would like to make the operations of the SU more transparent by sharing the budget of fests among other things. He also shared that since he already had a good bond with a lot of people, from the students to the redi owners, he had a greater understanding of their problems than his competitors.
To conclude, he urged his juniors to not just look at small initiatives such as academic drives or get swayed by someone’s CGPA or reputation on campus, but instead to look at their past responsibilities and experience. He requested the students to make an informed decision by judging a candidate’s ability to handle the SU’s responsibilities.