Posted on

The SU, SSMS, and EC

A Tale of Two Debacles

Over the duration of this month, there have been incidents involving the Society for Student Mess Services (SSMS) and the Students’ Union (SU) that have resulted in outrage, unprecedented actions being taken, and a general state of confusion.

In the interest of clarity, the following is a list of the interviews that were taken, and the time they were taken at:

  • Election Commission (EC) Interview (the first one): Interview with all the 2019 batch members of the Election Commission. This was a video-call interview. The interviewees were Sneha, Aditya Iyer, and Aditya Mishra. It took place on September 16.
  • Interview with the General Secretary of the SU: This was a telephonic (audio-only interview) with the General Secretary, Harsh Lamba. It took place on September 17.
  • Election Commission Interview (the second one): This was a video-call interview. The interview was with a 2018 batch member of the Election Commission (in advisory capacity), Harsh Yadav. It took place on September 17.
  • Interview with the SSMS President: This was a video-call interview with the SSMS President, Garvit Sukhija. It took place on September 19.
  • Interview with the President of the SU: This was a video-call interview with the SU President, Harsh Shukla. It took place on September 19.
  • Election Commission Interview (the third one): A second interview (a follow-up interview) with all the 2019 batch members of the Election Commission (names mentioned above). This was a video-call interview. It took place on September 20.

A 2018 batch member of the EC (in advisory capacity) who is currently on campus did not respond to our request for an interview.

A rough timeline of events is as follows:

  • September 3: Arguments and fights erupted on various social media and instant messaging platforms; the discussion and arguments were primarily centred around the SSMS volunteers, and the manner in which they were called back on campus.
  • September 12: A video of the SU General Secretary surfaces, which led to considerable outrage on the same forums mentioned above. The video leads to some members of the GBM calling for an impeachment, and the EC releasing impeachment guidelines.
  • September 15: A notice announcing the indefinite suspension of the General Secretary of the SU, signed by the SU President was published on the BITS online noticeboard. A root-mail with the same information is received by students the next day.
  • September 21: Since the suspension was carried out through an executive clause in the Constitution of the SU, without a vote, a UC-GBM meeting has been called for the evening of September 21, to ratify the executive decision taken by the President.

Considering that a UC-GBM meeting is scheduled for September 21, we have decided to go ahead with publishing the articles immediately, to keep the GBM informed. A summary may be added here at a future stage. The individual articles can be found at the following links:

Link to the SU Constitution