Rohan Parikh (Junior Correspondent at Free Press Pvt. Ltd.)
Fake Lies is a satire series about Ashokan life and culture (or lack thereof).
Illustration by Arushi Jain
In a dramatic departure from conventional student politics, the students of Hoshak University will be voting in a dictator of their choice in the fourth election cycle of the newly established institution. Disillusioned by the erstwhile practiced model of representative democracy, the student body is eager to accord unilateral and unchecked power to the elected leader.
This strange decision has come to pass after prolonged debate and deliberation. The situation is such that it can only be understood by knowing more about life at Hoshak University. A first-year undergraduate who wished his identity not be revealed confessed his longing for subordination. He hates his lack of purpose, something he believes only tyranny can provide.
“You know, you come to Hoshak thinking it’s a great place. You won’t be judged and you can be who you want; its liberation. But, like, four months in you realize something is amiss. Everything is, like, too easy. I never thought I’d say this, but I kinda miss being bossed around.”
The student is reported to have undergone a severe spell of anxiety when no one judged him for having a two-month long polygamous relationship with two men and a woman.
“It’s like, I don’t even exist! I can’t stand such indifference towards my choices. Hashtag judge me please!”
And he is not the only one.
A fourth-year undergraduate whose name rhymes with Sia (but she dances) told us of her excitement about finally graduating. She looks forward to the oppressive social structures she would face once she is ‘out there’.
“After spending almost four years here I finally understand the problem. It is that there isn’t one! You start picking fights over trivial issues just because you want to. To my mind, it’s all because of boredom. Nothing really happens on campus.”
The student is currently working on her dissertation on Adam and Eve’s fall from the Garden of Eden. “Eve was bored- so she bit the apple. That’s my contention.”
After receiving several similar responses from students across the batches, we decided to reach out to the candidates standing for dictatorship. They, however, refused to be interviewed. A messenger speaking on behalf of the candidates told us that they couldn’t allow an interview since they had to seem unapproachable.
The student body, however, was eager to talk about them. Most of the students are simply exhilarated. There is a sense of indebtedness towards the candidates. We discovered that this was because the latter are forgoing their sense of oppression, only so that they can oppress, and thus satisfy, others.
Surprisingly, even the Administration denied commenting. We later discovered that this was because it was embarrassed. Clearly, it had failed to live up to its role as an obstruction to liberty.
An employee of the administration spoke to us in confidence. “All those open-door policies, town-halls, and advisories were our fault. We failed to give the students the enemy they all wanted- and now they are creating one for themselves.”
It is a brave new world, after all.
The candidate debate isn’t too far away. It is rumored that most of the candidates won’t even turn up for the debate. After all, the whole point is to not debate; just dominate. A couple of candidates haven’t even disclosed their identity. Should voters choose to vote for the anonymous candidates, they will press the button next to a blank plate. It’s like a game of chance, and as the Election Commission said, isn’t that the point?
A student sums up the situation aptly, “It’s simple. The less we know the better.”
To give this election legitimacy, some conventions were respected. Manifestos have been drafted and candidate posters are stuck around campus. While the manifestos haven’t actually been published so as to maintain an air of mystery, we did manage to get a sense of the kind of issues the candidates will likely create.
Chief among them will be strict curfew hours, gender segregation, boring meals, unapologetic email spamming, and random course allotments. Naturally, we were skeptical about some of the claims- after all, how much power will a student dictator actually have? Our doubts were soon put to rest. The Administration confirmed that it is more than willing to provide all the support it can. It wishes to give the entire student government budget over to the dictator, to be abused on whim and fancy. It released a simple statement:
“We want to make the students happy; that’s all we care about.”
Voting day is around the corner. The eleven-hundred strong undergraduate population is waiting in anticipation of what will be perhaps the most radical shift in student politics since its inception. Of course, not everything is going according to plan. There has been confirmation of the existence of a nascent underground rebel movement that wishes to usurp the totalitarian regime. Both the student body and the administration are on the lookout for the troublemakers.
“The revolutionaries are stupid,” says a candid second-year undergraduate, “they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s evident: we can’t handle our freedom. We need someone to call the shots.”
Such are the circumstances of this unique situation that a prediction is necessarily futile. But in keeping with the Free Press’s tradition of sounding prophetic while simply stating self-evident truths, we have come to the following conclusion: We hope Hoshak University gets the strife it desires, for peace seems to be the only thing it can’t handle.
Rohan Parikh is a humble creation of society and its many conventions. He has followed norms ardently and to the best of his abilities- so much so that sometimes the banality of the world feels all too real. He can’t help but laugh; He wants others to get in on the joke.
Nineteenth-century painting by Philipp Foltz depicting the Athenian politician Pericles delivering his famous funeral oration in front of the Assembly (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
On 14th February, our university will enter into its 3rd annual celebration: the spectacle of democracy. From a pool of 1,100-odd students, we will elect 15 members who we deem fit to legislate the promises that they shall make to us over the next few days. A fresh, and hopefully responsible, House of Representatives (HoR) will carry forward the tradition set up by our very first undergraduate batch.
Elections are sacred rituals where the values of the community are inscribed onto the ballot paper by individual voters. As election season nears, we are all ready to mount the high horse of democracy. Yet, are we confident of the principles that uphold our system, or are we simply allowing a ‘cool’ idea to thrive, regardless of its utility to our needs?
This question begs serious attention for three reasons.
The first reason deals with the nature of Ashokan election. We see parties simply echo one other. If we analyze the manifestos of the parties in the previous election, we find that at no point do they really oppose each other. Admittedly, each issue is important and requires addressal. Yet, each party simply reiterates the same problem in their manifesto. Electoral rhetoric at Ashoka then becomes a contest over who can articulate the same points in the most elegant manner.
We are presently confronting some serious issues, among which is the dearth of a culture of liberal dialogue on this campus. Periodic and incessant fights on social media are the most telling symptom of this problem, thus creating a problem of superficial consideration of serious issues, undermining the exchange and discourse that are key to the democratic model.
As we grow from a tiny community into an institution, we are noticing how communitarian sentiments are gradually fading away. This reflects in the way a lot of people don’t come up to partake in responsibilities. Most of the work is done by a select few. The idea of this University now stands at a crucial juncture as we enter into the liminal space, leaving behind the initial euphoria. The culture that has been long cherished seems vulnerable.
Like many things Western that we at Ashoka emulate, we’ve also adopted the Proportional Representation system. We really need to rethink if election is the best instrument both to preserve the Ashoka culture and to open up new avenues of inclusivity, creativity, and freedom.
Historically, elections have never been conceived as a promissory note of equality. Rather, they were devised to create an aristocratic distinction between the ruler and the ruled. Thus, democracy is dispossessed of its very essence, with elections becoming the battlefield upon which different interests fight to establish their dominance.
Democracy proper, on the other hand, never had election. In the city of Athens, where democracy got its meaning, sortition was the rule of the game. It was randomized lottery rather than voting which would select those upon whom the responsibility of legislation would be bestowed. Office was not necessarily attractive. Rather, it was understood as a responsibility which must be equally shared by all citizens. Until this novel system was fettered and eclipsed by the discourse of ‘merit’ in the modern period, uncertainty used to rule over the anxiety of power. It balanced the perennial political question of legitimacy versus efficiency.
Interestingly enough, the term ‘ballot’ is derived from the Italian ballotte, which refers to the balls that were used in drawing lots. Thus, randomness was at the core of democracy, neutralizing any possibility of conflict. Everyone, in theory, would have an opportunity to speak sooner than later.
Replacing the House of Representatives (HoR) with an open assembly based on sortition (selection by drawing lots) can reinvent the camaraderie of sentiments that is gradually dissolving on this campus.
Five reasons lead us to believe so.
To be a member of the HoR, hardly any special knowledge or expertise is needed. One does not require a specialization to hold office. Except for the IT ministry, where some amount of technical knowledge is needed, so one practically does not have to be an ‘expert’ to represent their voice in the open assembly. The emphasis should be on representation, rather than getting articulate people to the fore.
This campus has a strong commitment to social justice which is shown in its celebration of diversity. Yet, the line between maintaining diversity and patronizing others must not be blurred. Lottery too can be an instrument to ensure diversity in the student assembly.
Each individual at Ashoka comes with baggage — a host of experiences and realities that cannot be appropriated or represented by anyone other than the individual herself. Be it issues such as mental health, or the aesthetics of our campus — each individual has a valid insight to offer. HoR members, with their attempts to bring collective interest to the fore, necessarily fail in representing the full spectrum of thoughts and ideas that can be conveyed by individuals. This becomes the most compelling reason for the system of sortition to replace elections. The Ashokan reality is determined by its experiences — it is only right that the people should speak for themselves. This goes beyond the current election: it is in lieu of shaping the way we view ourselves as a community that such individuality in decision-making is sought.
This establishes a culture of liberal dialogue. We will learn to listen to one another and confront serious issues. Nobody is left behind, by choice or otherwise. Everyone gets a chance to be heard — and not in the way each political party promises, by way of representing popular interest— but literally, since the onus is now on the individual. A large proportion of the student body still remains inert on this campus. Sortition might break that inertia to create an idiom of shared responsibility. Participation will revive trust.
Ashoka is a great place to experiment this system: our few numbers, drive for change, and empathy for issues makes this fertile grounds to revolutionize the process of decision-making. We might not lose much if we don’t have elections, yet there is a potential that we open up a plethora of new possibilities.
When we have a party which claims that it started as a joke, why shouldn’t we give this new system a chance? The “fear of the man on the street” has to be replaced with the yet unexplored possibilities of randomness, inclusivity and unprecedented participation. As Tocqueville puts it, “..to profit from society’s benefit, one must submit to its burden”. Office of responsibility should not be something to be fought over — rather it is something that must be equitably shared by all. That is what sortition aims at, and that is what we need.
Disclaimer: Both authors have been associated with Dhamma. Views are personal.
Over the past week, we have had the pleasure of covering the Alumni Association elections with a Presidential Debate and Discussion and analysis of candidate manifestos. Here’s everything we wrote to aid you in the process of deciding who to vote for –
A slightly poetic beginner’s guide to our presidential candidates, and their vision for the AAA.
#CandidateSpeak
We figured that not all of you will have the time to go through a 2 hour debate, so we turned the candidate’s answers to article format to give you easy access to the answers you seek.
Q — What do you think is the role of the President of the Alumni Association? What will be your role in the next two years? What will be your first action item/executive order as President?
Q -How do you view the relationship between the association and the university? Additionally, what do you think is the role of any alumnus towards the university, in our current stage of professional lives?
Perhaps the most important in the series, this is the part where Mr. Karan Bhola, outgoing president of the AAA, asks the candidates specific questions about the promises they have made in their manifestos.
A couple questions are yet to be transcribed, and will be added to this article as and when that happens. We hope that you make an informed choice for the future of the Ashoka Alumni Association.
In the meanwhile, we would like to thank Karan Bhola, Samyak Shami, Shivangi Tikekar, Vedhika Anoora Krishnakumar, Debayan Ghosh, George Jacob and Arunima Singh for making this all possible.
Transcribed below are answers given by the candidates in the Presidential Debate and Discussion organized by The Edict in collaboration with the Ashoka Alumni Association.
What will you do to build trust? How would you engage with issues of sexual harassment and mental health?
Jasmine Luthra
I think that’s a fantastic question. So how I see it is, when we talk about the community vibe, there is this friendship and love that transcends across cohorts, but at the same time we’re putting a lot of trust in these people who are, one can say, strangers on some level. And how do we ensure that this trust is not misused? I would like to address this with the two examples you cited, of sexual harassment and mental health. I think as it has come out in the recent few months with emails and the discourse at the weekender, sexual harassment is a big problem, not just at campus, in our community, but in the world, and we’re all seeing the watershed movement that’s happening across the globe. I think the first step towards this is building safe spaces where people can talk about these things. This was already attempted at the weekender, and personally for me, as an alum, to be in that session, and learn about those grim realities, it was quite a revealing experience. I have been personally very moved by it, and I’ve had several conversations with the administration about it, on a personal level, not as a council member, just personally. So I think that was something which was just initiated and we need to build on that — build these safe spaces at local chapter levels, batch levels, community, council level, wherever it’s possible. Aishwarya Muralidharan, who’s a fellow council mate, started something called Circle of Trust, which was her attempt of reaching out to people struggling with mental health issues, to give them a space. These guys have regular Skype sessions where they talk to each other and it’s just beautiful.
Coming back, there is a strong need to build sensitization on these things. A very actionable point is, I feel, that local chapters are something which can be involved in this. So maybe, in the funding to local chapters, set aside some funds which can be used in engaging professionals into this and conducting workshops for the fellows, and building a safe space where you can talk about these issues. I don’t have an answer on how do we solve this, but considering how passionate people are about this, I’m sure we can get these amazing people on our task force and start thinking about it. I know that we want to do a lot with the CASH committee, the university. Again, I’m not sure if that’s the best way to go. I would personally prefer if as a community we could get together, sort of build best practices among ourselves for addressing this, and then transfer that to the university to take it forward and replicate from our model.
Lav Kanoi
So to the first part, building trust. Trust is a very, very big word, and it’s the foundation, the fabric of society. One of the reasons people trust is that things happen as per expectations, expectations are met. So the first thing would be to define these expectations. So for example, when fellows, undergraduates, masters’ students, PhD students, become alums, they need to know how the alum body functions. Who do they go to talk to for what kinds of issues? What is the channel of action to be taken for a variety of things, mark sheets for example on the one hand, to references on the other hand, to starting an interest group; it could be a number of issues. So to define what those channels are. Second thing is, to have these processes in place by which those results are actually delivered, and have metrics in place to make sure we’re doing those things right. So for example, Gaurav, a little while ago, had spoken about mentorship satisfaction metrics, if people are satisfied with their mentorship. The thing is, if you’re able to then, track how, from a service delivery perspective, how the association is delivering these services consistently over the years, it will continue to build faith and trust in the system of the association. That’s one part of the building trust aspect. The second aspect about delicate issues such as mental health or sexual abuse. The former, this is by extension again, the idea of a family. But the family is a feeling, right? The ethos. Realistically, we’ll be at 2000 people in a very, very short time, in two years. We’ll be at 2000 people. It’s a very, very large number. How do we retain, how do we make the family feeling real? Again, using systems and processes that are delivering on their various mandates. So to have these little — this group that Aishwarya had started, I didn’t know about this, which is a shame, because I would imagine myself to be active and generally aware of what the association is doing, but I didn’t know of this. Maybe there was a transmission loss of some kind. But to have these kinds of fora where people can get together and support each other. A family is a family when it loves and supports its constituents. And so it must be with the association as well.
Again with things like sexual abuse, to an email that was shared by an alum last night, there are a number of things I think the association can do to make a sort of safe space, some of which have already been listed on that email. From holding gender sensitization workshops to having an ombudsman facility. Obviously the association is not a legal entity, so the association cannot take decisions on this but it can create conversation and dialogue in a structured manner for people to feel comfortable having certain issues. I think a 2014 batch alum just shared something on module wise or training workshops before people can graduate or something like that which can build a culture of openness and of trust even at the student stage. Alumni can play a role there as well. So for me this circle of trust is, building trust is, again, process. Process and systemic dependent. And we will continue to to build metrics, review processes to make sure that we’re actually delivering on all those fronts and as we grow in numbers that is what I think will continue to have the community keep its faith in the association.
Parushya
The question is actually addressing something more philosophically first. And so going in with that, the first person, very fundamentally, that we trust in our life would be our mom and then our parents, and our close family and then friends. And how does that develop? Breaking down that process it’s a lot bit of transparency we see. We trust our parents blindly just because we know that by de facto they are transparent with us and they are going to take whatever rewards or whatever outcomes come out of their action, that accountability part. And then it develops into fraternity where we have our friends. Going by that analogy, I think right now, in the association where we are going to be dealing with a thousand members, and soon enough there will be 5000 members in the coming six to seven years. At that point, again I think we have to again break this down fundamentally into the association. The association is like some — Transparency and accountability is something we have to push for. I mean, as Gaurav rightly mentioned, having metrics for mentorship module. Then, as Jasmine did mention about the point or any penalty and the trust that we already have. To harness that I think that is also going to functionally break down into batches and chapters. We feel more comfortable with people we share a common background of education with, or where we have spent some time with them, and also where we are living. So strengthening those batches and chapters is an essential part towards building broader trust.
Yes, there are critical issues regarding sexual harassment and mental health even amongst the alumni in their workplaces. And a lot of alumni in the recent times in their individual groups or amongst friends have shared that. We can come up with these resources, I mean, the task forces at the level of chapters, at the level of batches. But that’s going to be only effective when we get them together. The recent Secret Santa event for that matter, well it was just a gifting campaign where you met other people. The feedback was that people made a lot of new friends and not just across their professional imperative points but that’s also going to be some of those long lasting friendships where people can share these things so I think breaking these things down, localizing, even the fraternity, the localization of a support system is going to go a great way. And so getting the self sufficient local chapters, getting the batches to function, I think the batch reps initiative that was started by the first alumni council is a great step towards that and we have to further that more by building resources financial and functional to make them, I mean, not just as one off secret santa event or one off initiative but also the forums where people can come together, people can come actually talk about these things. So community, as I would feel is that Alumni Association or council cannot put all the thrust but right now the seed should be on developing these systems.
Simran Rana
When it comes to trust-building you tend to trust someone that you know. And I think that even in my batch of 200 people I’d be very honest, I don’t know everyone in my batch. But I still feel like whenever I think of someone, when I have to ask for help, something that I cringe about doing. When I know that it’s a fellow and even if it’s not someone from my batch I still have the courage to go and ask someone for help. And like Lav had said, when your expectations are met and more often than not, I do receive help and whatever I ask. So I think because it gets reinforced so often, I encourage other people to ask for help even if they don’t know fellows from other batches. And I try and be a good network for someone, like someone else was for me. And so I think that going further, we might not all be able to physically meet each other. As alumni keep increasing, our annual weekenders will not be able to have everybody meet everybody. So like Parushya mentioned that local chapters need to be very good at making people feel like, okay I’m from this chapter and I know people from my chapter. And that we should try and increase in person time as much as possible, and have, not events but have themes, that run longer than maybe one meeting or two meetings and that engage people for a longer period of time. So it could be any one thing, knowing your city better, and we could do that through a walk one week, or having a meal together, or planning a trip together. And in terms of virtually building trust, I think our app could help us there. So if we move cities can you automatically see which fellow is situated there in the city, and what’s happening in terms of this weekend or next weekend. I think that if we know fellows better then we’ll be able to trust them better.
And in terms of mental health and sexual harassment, I think that the conversation around both is definitely more open than other universities and that people are aware of at least mental health issues that they’re suffering from, and their vocabulary is I think better enriched than other people I know who are not from Ashoka. And that Ashoka is doing what it can to help people get better but I don’t think that the center for well-being is enough as it is. And that apart from doing workshops I think that it’s important for people to really understand the terms that they use and what depression really means. It’s a word that is very loosely thrown around and not properly understood. And the same way with sexual harassment, how does one recognize that one is in a situation of being harassed, what all does it entail, how you should protect yourself, or I mean things can get very fuzzy and I think that we should start from there in terms of better being able to understand things that we talk about so that everybody is on the same page in terms of what we think. I think that we can start there as a community.
Ashweetha Shetty
So I believe then you like any community, when you share a common identity then automatically there is trust. So I would better trust a young india fellow than someone, right? So basically, helping us to understand like, that identity and also building that connection in the sense, like building that connection how, in the way of reiterating our shared lived experiences. Like we all have same kind of lived experiences. I think if we have portals, we have platforms where we can share those experiences, I think trust can be built a lot more. And I also feel like transparency is the way to go. We need to be transparent about everything that is happening. Also, whenever I feel that a community, like I can trust a community when I see people like me that I can connect to, there are people who are standing there for me. So I think like ensuring diversity in that way, I think all these are ways that we can build trust among our own community.
In terms of very critical issues like sexual harassment and mental health, I think we truly as a community need to do something on that. And I also feel on these issues need a lot of expertise and also a lot of research to be done. And for me, if I would have to take a decision on that, I would actually start or create a task force around this and get all the alumni who are having some kind of experience and also who have lived experience, like create a diverse group, and then start addressing these issues and create something very unique for our own community. And in terms of mental health, I think like given I have TA’d for Dwight and Professor Kenwyn, there is so much of help I think alumni can do in terms of helping the current fellows. And even in alumni itself I think because we are a community of diverse people and lot of people are going out and reaching much in their life the others would feel there is a lot of mental health issues in the alumni community as well. I believe that really taking external help and learning the best practices that is happening across the world, I think that is something which I would personally want to do.
Gaurav Mohta
So I’m saying that the key way to build trust within the community, within the ever-growing community, is to be as transparent with your decision-making, with what you’ve delivered so far, and what you intend to deliver in the future. So this is the primary way that you build trust within the community. Secondly is to be responsive to the alumni, you know, alumni issues and requests. For example, I stretch it with the sexual harassment point. Let’s say somebody comes up to the association with a case of sexual harassment, right? This might not even necessarily be an alumni, this might be a student. He or she might have approached the university administration but nothing would have been done there. So we need to ensure that firm action, firm and quick action is taken on that. And to substantiate on that you know I am being part of — I’ve led the creation of an anti-sexual harassment committee in my office. We did this proactively after the recent incidents which came into picture and we did this proactively and there was a — there was one case which came up. It was not really a major case of harassment but we ensured that corrective action was taken against the employee and he was fired within 24 hours, right? You cannot hold on to such issues, you cannot form committees after committees and hold such issues or weeks and months together. You need to take firm and quick action. So that these are two ways that you build trust with.
And the second part of the question is how do you handle issues like sexual harassment and mental health. I think one of the — so for sexual harassment, how you handle it on campus is going to be very different then how you handle it for alumni who are not on the campus. When on the campus you need to first gauge what the current situation is and the best way to do that is via both a qualitative and quantitative assessment. We can float surveys and understand how many people are aware about the existing policies including the redressal policies, right? So if people are not aware about that, that is the issue I’d like to tackle first. And if people are aware about that but still not approaching the administration, let’s say, then that is another — that is a different problem. Then I’m looking at that problem in that light and attack it from there, right? So we need to first gauge what is the extent of the problem. Similarly for mental health as well, like what are the reasons for mental health issues cropping up in campus and outside. We need to be aware about that, whether it is career related or whether it is about a relationship going sour or whether it is about, let’s say, a family member being lost or you know you not being happy with what the community around you looks like. So we need to understand all of those things and then prioritize them in order of how you can fix them, right? And having worked at a healthcare startup and actually, one which connects doctors and patients online as well, I’ve seen that a lot of people respect privacy, they want others to respect their privacy. And for mental health issues I think an online consultation platform like …(inaudible) would be a good place to get professional help from. And I mean independent of what happens in the elections, I’d be happy to enforce that partnership with Ashoka for the students as well as for the alumni body.
We are deeply thankful to Shivangi Tikekar from the UG’17 batch for transcribing these answers.
Mr. Karan Bhola, the outgoing President of the Ashoka Alumni Association, prepared one question for each candidate specific to their candidature and manifesto. Here are the questions, and the candidates’ answers to them.
Gaurav Mohta
With respect to the fundraising that you’ve spoken about, what is your plan towards generating the corpus amount that you indicated by 2020? What do you think would be the biggest challenges for you in reaching this goal?
Karan, you rightly mentioned that the fundraising metric that I mentioned is very ambitious. 1 crore by 2020, while other candidates have set that target for 8–10 years. I think this is very achievable, given my past experience with fundraising. In the first alumni fund that we created back in 2013, we collected over four lakh rupees within just the first two batches. So what I think needs to be done is two things: one is constant engagement with the alumni community. Right now it’s a one-off gifting program which happened during the course of the Alumni Weekender, so constant engagement like Karthik Gulati put up a video where he said that 50 students called up all the fellows to invite them to the weekender. So why not those engage with the alumni body even in terms of fundraising? Secondly, donor trust founders and trustees and other stakeholders. In fact, I want to announce it right now, I have a commitment to Rs. 10 lakh from one of the founders, a gift matching commitment. These things make me believe that we can achieve you know the one crore target within the next two and a half years itself.
Simran Rana
What would be an actionable plan in terms of engaging with communities outside of Ashoka, especially in the context of fundraising and events? External engagement is one of the key mission areas of the Association and I would be very interested in understanding how you plan to enable this.
From what I understand, the Alumni Association is mainly to raise funds for the university that it’s is associated with, and to help the alumni. Also, the Alumni should be able to give better opportunities for people who will graduate after them. So, I felt that if the local chapters have to become independent and the Alumni Association has to become financially independent, then can we in a small way start having events that fundraise already with the talent that the Ashoka community already has. Local chapters can start hosting events which are talent based, which would be musical shows or plays, and could invite people that are outside of ashoka community in the form of either tickets or food or something simple so that 1) there would be an audience to YIF and also 2) it would widen the kind of people that we meet. I see that YIF people and Ashoka people become too comfortable with each other and then find it very difficult to engage with people outside the community. In simple terms, if the events that YIF local chapters have where only YIF people are called, it could be a plus-one event where you get a friend or someone who is not a YIF just so that you meet people outside of the 10–15 people in a particular city.
Ashweetha Shetty
You’ve put out some great ideas about how to make of the alumni accounts transparent, talking about getting ten different alumni to be part of it. How you would go about implementing this? What would be some of the criteria you use for identifying diverse alumni?
What I mean by diversity in the first place is gender, social class, opinions and so many so many other ways I define diversity. We all know from our experience of the fellowship that diversity works. When diverse people come together then great ideas come and all voices are heard, so I think that’s my that’s my mission. There are very similar voices I hear all the time from many task forces or the meetings which we have. I believe if we could include that diverse voice, that will be great. The criteria for selecting that diverse voice will have to come from the alumni community, but I also feel that I have certain ideas about how this whole thing works — just inviting them to absorb conversation so that it is is it is because very conscious for us that there are diverse people sitting there so our intention is to hear all the voices and to take decisions after that. I think that’s that’s my intention of putting diverse voices and I personally believe in Drive diversity. It really has been my personal value, and I would love to see that reflect in the Association.
Parushya
There’s this really cool idea that you’ve spoken about — Alumni Hour, where twice every month people will sign up to sit with key decision makers of the university to discuss the functioning, resources, concerns etc. How do you plan to implement it? How do you think this will feasibly work, on a consistent basis? If you are talking about senior administrators and faculty from the university, getting them every month twice would not be an easy task.
Sure Karan. I think you’re bringing a lot on board here with your experience about the challenges that come with such an initiative. I must admit that it’s an ambitious baby step that we’re talking about right now. Yes, the founders, the administration and the broader alumni community are all awfully busy. So just from a very functional perspective, it’s going to be setting up more of an engagement platform for later on. Every month twice is going to be for once let’s say the UGs, the other time CASH, and then next month’s will move on to another department like GCWL. So you’re engaging them and channel I think this is going to be a challenge except but I think the broader e thousands that this will bring people into a zone where they they can raise their individual views and not get bogged down by a broader conversation and making sure that they are on the right side.
Logistically, we have had town-halls during Ashoka times. The founders and senior management do take time out for a or for a mentorship session. I think it’s all about channelizing that energy into a more structured form where we can also let alumni engage on their own individual views. Also, it’s not always about the head of the admin being there. We can also get representatives as proxies. That is where the accountability part comes in, that those views are communicated to the relevant people and the Alumni Office. It is an ambitious step. The new council will require your support and also your experiences with you but it is going to be a functional thing.
Jasmine Luthra
You’ve spoken about mapping each alum to the nearest local or regional chapter by July 2019. Considering that you have been on the council and you’ve seen how difficult it is to maintain and update a database, how do you think you’re going to achieve this goal?
As we all know, we are moving towards numbers which are just unimaginable, so you can’t have things happening in Delhi or Sonepat. So we need to move towards decentralization, we need to have local chapters. Now I know it will be a challenge and somewhere I’m going to bring this to the community because we can create platforms but they have to engage. Eventually, the local chapter mapping and major communication has to move to the portal, so the portal should be the Facebook for all of us. Based on the information that we have, we will try to map everyone to an existing chapter. I plan to launch an lot of chapters during my tenure. The aim is to have a chapter in every city with five plus alums, or have regional chapters like the east coast or the west coast in the US, and map everyone at once based on a location they provided to us on the portal. Then it should be a rooster thing happening periodically. We should also really encourage alums to update the portal when you move cities the way you update your Facebook. (Cut off there for time constraints)
Lav Kanoi
Given that you work at Ashoka University and in the office of the Vice Chancellor, how do you plan to tackle situations that might arise, where there is a different viewpoint that you build consensus on (with the council and the alum body), while there might be a different administrative view?
To get to the heart of the matter, it’s a symbiotic relationship. The question presupposes that there will be conflict between the Association and the university or the administration. I’d like to point out how the debate today began. I said that this would be a symbiotic relationship. I think on most occasions there should be a degree of parallelism because really it’s the same interest. Our strength is the university’s strength. Occasionally when there are differences again, there are two different routes. I don’t see this being a problem at all. On the contrary, I see this position as being a strength to the alumni association because I have the university and its processes well understood. I’ll be in an influential position to actually build consensus with the administrative staff as well. Second point is that the role with Pratap is on for another nine months or so, that’s that’s the the visibility we have at this moment. Who knows what’s going to happen after that? This is the critical period of the next council, and I’m hoping that in these six to nine months, we’ll be able to set up those processes and systems that I spoke of earlier. It will actually help us become a thriving family which I so hope that we will be. In summation, it’s a strength.
Transcribed below are answers given by the candidates in the Presidential Debate and Discussion organized by The Edict in collaboration with the Ashoka Alumni Association.
What is truly unique about your candidature? What sets you apart from the other candidates?
Jasmine Luthra:
I’ve worked on the interim council and the founding council. I have the insider’s view, a deep understanding of how things work, what are the gaps and what needs to be done. Although new energy must come in at this nascent age, I think having some continuity would have its own advantage.
Lav Kanoi:
I have had the experience of working in varied fields like Business Consulting, Government Advisory, Teaching and Research. In addition to the various languages I speak, I’m also familiar with ‘languages’ of the fields I’ve just mentioned. I have made sustained contributions to the Association and the larger community. As chapter head, I’ve worked and delivered on a number of different initiatives. I am uniquely positioned in Ashoka. At the moment I am a part of the Vice Chancellor’s office. My position and proximity ensures that the right systems and processes get integrated with the larger university.
Parushya
I’ve closely engaged with more than three batches: my own batch and the batches post mine. I’ve taken advice from all the batches during the course of making my manifesto. I consider my ability to collaborate a strength. Tangibly working with international universities, I’ve seen and studied the stages of development of Alumni Associations. I believe that with the help of both these qualities I will be able to achieve the common vision that we all have.
Simran Rana:
I’m not the most illustrious candidate running for President: I haven’t been associated with the previous councils. I’ve only been associated as a TA a couple of times but just like all the other candidates I have a lot of integrity and a lot of heart. I think that I would be able to bring in something fresh and a little bit new. I’m an outsider who does not exactly understand what the Alumni Association really does. I’d like to figure that out for myself and for a lot of people like me. I think my running for President will always be in the direction of involving everybody and reengaging with people who are dropping off of our radar and bringing them back
Ashweetha Shetty:
After the Fellowship I’ve come to Ashoka every single year. In the last five years I’ve interacted with several fellows from diverse backgrounds. I’ve understood what an alumni community means for others and for me. I feel I am someone who is far away from Ashoka in many ways. I work at the grass root level and I think I have a very unique perspective of looking at Ashoka. I add a lot of diversity to my batch and I want to ensure that it exists in all platforms. I am from the second batch and we experienced a lot of soul. This got diluted over the years and I want to bring back some of those things. These are some of things that make me very unique to this position.
Gaurav Mohta:
Over the last two years the current Association has done a wonderful job of setting up and strengthening the processes and systems of university and alumni relations. Things have improved since 2015–16. While we need to ensure that there is continuity in terms of what was planned we also need to accelerate the impact. The first council laid the foundation to create but we also need to consider the different viewpoints among the alumni, the fast evolving priorities of the university and the association and the virtual boundaries we have or will create for ourselves. I call this process driving on the highway. I’ve been a part of three early stage startups and I can say that we will make mistakes and even big blunders. It’ll be important to remain humble about making mistakes and openly accepting and learning from them. This will allow us to move forward in the right direction keeping the community’s trust intact. My key strengths are empathy, influencing without authority and my experience of leading multiple large and diverse teams through challenging situations at work and outside as well. I think these skills would be very useful to the association in its current stage and structure.
We are deeply thankful to Samyak Shami from the UG’19 batch for transcribing these answers.
Transcribed below are answers given by the candidates in the Presidential Debate and Discussion organized by The Edict in collaboration with the Ashoka Alumni Association.
How do you view the relationship between the association and the university? Additionally, what do you think is the role of any alumnus towards the university, in our current stage of professional lives?
Parushya
I think this is there in the minds of all of us right now. To define the relationship between the alumni association and the university right now — not disagreeing that we have been financially dependent on the university and moreover we have all came from the same ecosystem so we have emotionally attachment also. Right now at this juncture what is important is once we are trying to develop into an independent body, one that is even related to Ashoka but also has a distinct voice on its own functioning and even on matters which are pertaining to the university but do affect the Alumni. I think the first step is that we define a thumb rule — that what are our terms of engagement. How are we going to be engaged with the university and that is coming right from the preamble, right from the ethos of the Alumni Association. That it is about first the alumni — every particular Alum matters here. So if something in Ashoka matters to alumni — something going out in the media, or just being reported, but even if a single alumni feels about it, we have to go about with addressing that — giving every Ashokan a voice right now, because, lets accept it, right now we are stakeholders who are not invested in terms of funding the university, but we do have a voice in terms of having it like as an alumni who has studied there. As the previous batches are coming to the university in terms of mentorships and in terms of jobs. So at this juncture defining when we are going to interact, when we are going to say things.
Answering the second question, I think that all alumni are at different stages in their careers and their lives. But it’s not just about money or network. I think it ranges across 4 distinct classifications which I would put as individual alumni to the university in terms of money, talent, network and time. Some of us work as TA’s while others bring jobs here, some of us work in fund raising while others work with connecting our own organizations and building up the university’s upcoming batches base for them. Those are 4 distinct characteristics and moreover a single alumni should also be able to contribute even a single opinion. Like what I mentioned in my manifesto is about Alumni Hour where every single idea and voice should atleast get a platform to be heard and pondered upon. I think across those four areas — money, talent, network and time; and having a distinct platform to put forth opinion — that is how we play a role right now at this juncture as alums.
Simran Rana
So how alumnus have their relationship with the university is definitely one that feels homely and coming back home, which is why I think a lot of YIFs and undergraduates keep coming back to Ashoka in whatever capacity they can — as TA’s or ASP programs — because we can’t get enough of Ashoka and I don’t think that anybody has a better education experience in their years before because it’s so welcoming and you feel like everything that you say is heard which is why I think that most of us are more vocal than we were ever in institutions that we’ve been associated with before. And I feel that, again, like Parushya has already spoken very well, that none of us have very well established careers right now but I think that in whatever we can contribute, even if it is being a good connector in terms of “Oh I know this person from this batch and he/she will be able to help you” Just helping people meet people from other batches or just across our network would be a great way to connect with our university. And also that we should continuously give feedback to Ashoka and scaling up and every year they have new challenges and something that worked 6 months ago doesn’t work anymore — bigger classrooms, too many electives, not enough classroom space and I think the task force was one very successful thing, when it did work , and even if there is time when we should engage with Aniha, or any professor or even YIFs or UGs on campus in terms of saying what we think and keeping the conversation going.
Ashweetha Shetty
For me, I feel my hope for Ashoka Alumni Association specially was to be a really critical voice in shaping in the institution — a really critical voice. Every single decision we have to earn, for sure; but that’s what I feel is the relationship that I am hoping for — is to be that voice which will help the institution forward. I think we as alumnus know that things like diversity works in fellowship and we need to include people. These are things that we have seen so it is important for us to be that voice telling the institution that this is working and this isn’t and this is where we are.
I also feel that as alumnus where our contribution could be is that — especially when it comes to YIF — we are going out and doing great things, travelling the world, studying in different universities, and I think if we can get back those best practices to really build the institution and also contribute in any ways possible because this institution needs us as it has just been 7 years. Basically in terms of getting the best practices and contributing as much as possible in the initial stages to really build the institution, I feel that every one of us can do something.
Gaurav Mohta
I think the primary objective of the Alumni association should be to act as a bridge between the university and the student, the alumni and the community — to help alumni be connected to the university irrespective of where they are in their lives right now. That to me is the most important role of an Alumni Association. And when we talk about the relationship between the association and the university, I think the association needs to ensure that it is in alignment with the university’s goals and other priorities at any given point in time. For example, one very important point that Lav mentioned just now was that probably at this point in time the university needs us to go out and be the brand ambassadors, champion the university’s cause. So I think the association needs to be in the alignment with the university’s priorities and at the same time — this relationship is something which will keep evolving over time. For example, we are at a very nascent stage right now as an association and I don’t think we are in a position where we can call the shots on most of the things that the university does. We can obviously constructively engage with the university and the administration, including the founders, put forward our concerns and provide constructive feedback. But beyond that I think that at the moment, we are not in a position to drive decision making significantly. In probably eight to ten years down the line, we might be there, and that should be the target the Alumni Association council should work towards.
To answer the second part of the question. I think one of the roles of alumni is to be that of a role model and mentor to the current students. Being such a young university where the numbers are increasing significantly year on year — it is very important for the alumni to come back and give back as much as possible in terms of their time and putting in more efforts to get more internships, more ELMS, careers opportunities; and high quality ones — we need to be mindful of that as well. So I think along with that, like I mentioned in my response to the previous question, that they need to be brand ambassadors and champions for the university at this point in time.
Jasmine Luthra
So, I have seen that the university till now has been very forthcoming of the association. Likee if we go back and remember in April 2015 when the first Alumni event happened at Ashoka, it was the founders especially Pramath who got all of us together in the MPH, got us to brainstorm and start thinking about the Alumni Association. And that is where this idea germinated and then turned into an interim council and the first council and today we are here.
Even in the last 2 years as a council member I can say that the university has been extremely supportive. They have tried to involve the alumni in almost everything that happens on campus whether it is events or the orientation of the new batch or getting us as TA’s etc. You do feel that there’s always a space you can go back to. I also belong to a college in Delhi University but you know the kind of warmness and welcome type of a feeling you feel at Ashoka is very very unique. Now, coming back, we are in a very unique position because I believe we are one of the few universities in the world which is so young and has an Alumni Association. If you look at most of the Alumni Associations in other institutions they are usually composed of many senior people who are at the top of their careers. They sort of contribute in terms of giving direction and money etc to the organization. So in that sense we are at a very unique position and I think we have made a lot of progress in defining a role for ourselves. And yes, we are not in that position in our life that we can contribute financially very strongly, but all of us have gotten together and built this culture of giving back, as Parushya said, at an individual level, as a TA, in terms of getting our companies to hire at Ashoka, the ELM clients, work as council volunteers so on and so forth. So this role is sort of already in the making. We definitely have to work towards strengthening the show and making it more streamlined and ensure that every alum is a part of it. The other role I see for ourselves as alums of Ashoka and the Young India fellowship and the undergrad program is that we are also torch bearers and kind of the representatives of the university for the outside world. So how we conduct ourselves at our workplace, in our social lives, how we engage with other matters of the society kind of reflects back at Ashoka and we have to be mindful of how we conduct ourselves and contribute to building the credibility that Ashoka already has for itself. I would also like to address the elephant in the room. So, I know that in a lot of conversations I feel that line about giving back to the university or being involved in matters kind of blurs a bit and it transcends over to the administrative issues of the university which in the general sense are not considered “matters of the alumni”. But of course we won’t comply to that convention because we are not conventional. I really support it. I think it is great that we are critical of everything that happens at Ashoka and it just goes on to show that we support and love the institution. Our Liberal arts education is coming to play where we are thinking about things, critical about things and we want to be involved in each and every thing. In all these matters I mean. But at the same time we have to be a little mindful of this. Of our actions. I mean, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be critical, we definitely should be. But we should definitely go back and reflect and try to think as a community on how we want to do these engagements. Now one thing is to sort of point fingers, but the other thing is that harnessing on the diversity and the backgrounds and the experience that we have, we can get together, have honest conversations and actually build sort of consensus on especially the controversial and political issues. Just come together, collate our opinions, unpack and more meaning fully contribute to the discourse.
Lav Kanoi
2 words –symbiotic relationship. We are strong when the university is strong and the university is strong when we are strong. In our progress is the university’s progress and the university’s progress is our progress. Secondly, the other word I would use is a theme, so to speak, is family — a family of love, and pun intended. This is not to say that we don’t be, as Jasmine said and a bunch of others have also said, be critical. We do have our different opinions, we will create a different identity, but we will do this in a constructive manner. So the relationship of the association and the university is to be in a constructive partnership for each other. Play a shaping role, but within an ambit of the association. This is something that requires more conversation. Jasmine for example already pointed towards this issue, the elephant in the room she called it, about how we define the scope of the association. It has something that would be strange to have a say in — for example faculty recruitment. And there would be issues for us to not have a say in it. So someone had raised an issue of workers’ rights. In my year at the fellowship there was an incident that had happened, me and a bunch of fellows had gotten together and first spoken of these issues, and then the contractors were forced by the university to provide safety harnesses for the workers. So things like that are constructive kinds of conversations that we should and necessarily must have.
The second thing however, and the institution is supporting this, is for building a distinct alumni association, distinct identity, Because I think our founders, the administrative body, and the leaders that the university has had in people like Pratap, Shankar, Mahesh and the entire people who are leading the university now, and the remarkable founder cohort, is that they want us to be independent. And this points me to the second questions — What is the role of the alumnus towards the university? It is simply to be the best that we can be individually. We are the greatest, as it were, missionaries, advertisements, flag bearers — call it what you want of the university. So when we do what we do with heart, we will be upholding the university’s ethos. If this requires criticizing the university so be it, but we shall do it from a position of love and family. That would be my position on this.
We are deeply thankful to George Jacob from the YIF’18 batch for transcribing these answers.
The Ashoka Alumni Association (AAA) Elections are back this year. The first elections for the Alumni association were held in 2015. This time, the first batch of Ashoka undergraduates, who are now officially considered alumni, will also be participating in the elections.
The Student Government set up an Alumni Relations Ministry recently, being lead by Samyak Shami, second year undergraduate at Ashoka.
These developments would naturally prompt questions regarding the who, what, why of the elections and the body itself. The Edictis here to decode.
The dates of the entire election cycle are:
19th December: Nominations Open
26th December: Nominations Closed
29th December: Campaigning Begins
11th January: Campaigning Ends
13–14th January: Voting Days
What is the structure of the Council of the Ashoka Alumni Association?
The Alumni Council of the AAA constitutes a President and six other elected Directors.
Who is contesting to be a part of the Council this election cycle?
Here is the official list of candidates –
Who are AAA Batch Representatives?
Ashoka Alumni Association Batch Representatives are also nominated and voted for alumnus but are not members of the AAA Council. They simply represent the interests of the batch of which they are members. Each elected individual represents one hundred alumnus from his/her batch, hence smaller batches of YIFs would require only one representative (minimum number of representatives for an undergraduate student batch is two since the founding class comprised over a hundred students). An alumni who has pursued more than one academic programme at Ashoka can only contest as a member of one batch in a particular election cycle.
Which alumnus members are contesting to be Batch Representatives this election cycle?
Here is the list of candidates contesting to be Batch Representatives for their particular batch –
Who is eligible to be nominated?
Any individual who is an alumnus is eligible to contest as a directorial candidate. However, one is only eligible to run for president if he/she has been an alumnus for at least two years.
Who is officially considered an alumnus?
Any student who has graduated from the undergraduate programme or the Young India Fellowship qualifies as an alumnus. Fourth year undergraduates (Ashoka Scholars Programme) are also considered alumni. Masters in Liberal Studies students are also considered YIF alumni, and can contest as the same.
Do students of the Ashoka Scholars Programme (ASP) need to “graduate” again to be a part of the Council?
No, they do not. ASP students already become Ashoka alumnus at the end of the three year programme, and will hence have the opportunity to vote for this election cycle.
Who votes?
Any alumnus of the YIF or Undergraduate programme is eligible to vote in the AAA Elections. This year, ,members of the previous batches of the YIFs and the first batch of undergraduates will be voting.
Why is the Alumni Association for UGs and YIFs the same?
The Alumni Association aims to forge a strong Ashokan identity by expanding the definition of Ashoka to include alumni from every batch of every programme. All graduates are instilled with with the same skills and values. Compartmentalizing alumni into different associations would significantly reduced the resource pool at one’s disposal and leave little scope for interaction between graduates of different programmes.
Lastly, the elections are carried out and overseen by the AAA Election Commission, which comprises of a Chief Commissioner of Elections, a Returning Officer and up to five Election Officers (including two incumbent Alumni Council members). The Chief Commissioner is appointed by the Alumni Board of Ashoka University following a recommendation by the incumbent Alumni Council.
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