Elections at Anna university

Even though now elections are history in Anna University, courtesy some police case due to political rivalry, my most memorable time in CEG were due to elections, it taught me how nasty politics is and how much I liked to be in that gutter, a post was long due regarding this and a good Saturday morning and NO-BOSS situation gave me some opportunity to write this.

It all started with the usual ragging fever in first year, but as slowly it turned out even if our seniors wouldn't have signed the NO-RAGGING form, they wouldn't have ragged us, I discovered the reason very next year, in very simple terms we Anna University people are lazy-ass buggers, as our future is more or less certain (some job in some company) we decided to spend our time sleeping and watching movies rather than building our skills be it technical or personal (so called soft).

But there were some seniors who were enthu enough to take us(freshmen) for a drive in their car, get us a snack in canteen, give us tips about professors, WOW what an atmosphere I thought, no ragging, helpful seniors, an assured job and I came to conclusion that if there is heaven then it is in CEG.

One fine day a senior called me to his room, even though I was irritated as I was disturbed during the most important thing a CEGian can do (sleeping actually), I promptly went to his room, after initial discussions about studies and where are you from stuff, he asked “are you a class representative”, I said No, he continued “why shouldn't be one?”, I being a more lazy ass then anybody else said “responsibilities are bad, I want to enjoy my life here”, he persisted “no, you'll get good intro with professors, good exposure to seniors, enjoy certain privileged which no body else can get.. blah blah blah .. “, to stop him I said “ok, I'll compete in next class representative election”, he advised me to be in good terms with all my classmates so I can be a successful class representative, I went back to WORK.

So in second semester, when the class advisor asked “who is your class representative?”, I in sleep heard only the “class representative” part and thought that she is asking for candidates and stood up firmly, she asked “who elected you?”, fuck man the whole thing became clear to me, so I decided to act smart, with my classic and pathetic smile I said “no one”, I don;t know what she thought after stunned for a second she asked, “anybody objections?”, being new to class and a ball thrown at them in the very first day everybody decided to keep silent rather than act, so I was elected as a class representative unopposed or rather unanimously.
Man, the real work of class representative is a pathetic one, I had to arrange for chalk, duster, scheduling of class, collect assignment, and the worst thing is resolve the clash between timings for test and extra classes, actually one faculty disowned me for his subject and appointed some other for it, actually I was more than happy to give away my position as my ass was feeling the pain.
The other part is I came to know about the elections stuff, I was repeatedly called for meetings explaining the importance of being in sync with others, spying on opposite gang etc, man what time you know I was both excited and scared, I was happy doing all those things as I got some attention at every damn meeting, somethings I say in my typical loud voice grabbed the attention of important people and I started to get calls for almost all their meetings and dinners.
But the worst thing happed in few weeks, I noticed that most of my gang from school were hanging out with opposite party, and karadi dragged me to one of their meetings and introduced to someone who was surrounded by most people as “this is Gowthaman, EEE class representative”, I was shocked to know at the course of that meeting that I was actually inducted as one of them, thanks to karadi, I changed by political side in 2nd month of my political career.

All was going well till I told about these things to my mom, you should have seen her at that time, I have never seen her getting furious in any of my activities, a big lecture and lot of threatening(actually cutting my pocket money) persuaded me to not to stand for 3rd semesters class representative post, but I decided to work or support from outside (this continued till for next one year, and when karadi decided to compete for president and I had no option other than being his “advisor”) .
So I was not actually a part of any of the election stuff till 5th semester, in second year our party didn't even compete, the person whom I was introduced felt that he cant do or something and no alternate was available I believe, so we LOST.
In 3rd year, we WON, actually I had nothing to do, but some of our gang guys cars were damaged and karadi went for a big war with them (verbally I should say), and some stupid bugger from our side crossed the limit of his verbal attack and got physically assaulted by them, so that followed enquiry and 2 week suspension for those involved in “inhuman brutality” committed to a very good person from our side [this was a big propaganda introduced by me, when I ran out of ideas for campaigning].
So one fine day, current IFS officer and to be IAS officer came to my room, after initial “kind” words for each other I was asked to help out them in elections but limited only to our class. What big deal, I thought so on that day at 9pm started my mega entry to restless campaigning which lasted for about 3 months, day and night, anyone who comes in sight will be canvased for a minimum of 2 hours, some people just to escape our torture said they'll definitely vote for us, and they didn't.
So after the initial taking care of our class, I had a status update with core gang, and our prospects of loosing are very bright, rather than winning, so everybody decided to pull socks and decided to work hard for next 2 months giving time for our honorable president candidate to study so that he can pass those few subjects where failures are the only norm, and I forgot that my limit is just for our class, there goes my entry into hardcore politics.
Now you can imagine everything that political parties do, booth capturing , ok we have class advisor capturing (from counting of votes, to conducting elections during favorable conditions), accusing the opposite party for what they did and they didn't, election promises that even from the beginning we know that can't be done or we won't do etc...
I now wonder what the Hell happened to me, I was accusing political parties for their activities and we are doing exactly the same, when it comes to grabbing power my idea of right, wrong and ethics everything just vanished, not even in air, but to vacuum.
So everything was going fine and smooth till department president election came and RK wanted to contest, now the dilemma which election is important, I thought that when it comes to department election we'll make some bugger from opposite/confused[those who claim to vote for both sites] gang win and get his gang vote for us, but this RK wants to be that bugger, so my first strategic mistake of not keeping my mouth shut turned to be a big damage for RK, so eventually we lost department election so by contesting we created more opposing parties, which lead to the losing of class representative post, there is some stupid phenomenon in Anna university, where if you lose 4th year, 3rd and 2nd year will follow, so we lost the entire EEE, in a matter of hours, we had few surprises in other departments.
finally holidays followed by placements, no one was in college other then “we mighty mighty seniors”, so we lost touch of all elections things, placements seemed more important than anything else in this world, so by the time we were ready to pounce on the opposition with new ideas, our 6th semester results were declared and guess what our presidential candidate had got not one but two Cups, man how could this be, so we searched for alternative we had none, so the entire party took rest, for the sake of not allowing them to win unanimously we filed a good charming person to lose, so eventually we lost, 16 to 23, and we had a big party that day at shakes and creams to celebrate our losing of one year of work, like political parties we said cried foul. [man how did they correct the class advisor of compsc AB batch, and kicked out our VP candidate from elections, Man this is booth capturing].
so coming to the end, there is no point in blaming the political parties for their actions, if common people like us, that too students behave the way we did, there is some problem in the society I don't know what is is, probably we didn't/don't have good examples, but I should say, winning or losing elections are fun.
so before complaining about politics, I think people should compete in elections and see how they behave themselves and think about their actions.