Editorial for Renesa

The last few weeks saw one of the best Mindbend that has been held in the college in recent history . There were loads of reasons for it not to turn out good- an extended holiday, the successful attempt at scuttling the rock show by some insecure representatives and general fatigue after a string of technical events. Yet it turned out to be a hit and how! The robotics show drew a great crowd and the workshops and lectures were excellent. The cultural nights were well organized and well received. Sparsh will have a lot to live upto but with big names like Mohit Chauhan and Gaurav Dagaonkar set to perform, it probably will be one Sparsh that'll be remembered for long.

In other news the TEQIP audit conducted recently concluded ( in line with the trend set by our representatives) that our institute deserves a high 9.2 which puts us in the league of the top 3 NITs. The college mail-ids are fully operational which is again good news although one does fervently hope that the Administrators put in a good Spam filter going by the number of “look at my pictures” mailers cluttering up the inbox. The Director has also been busying himself with sending us pictures of all the new hostels coming up but again one wishes every time that one of those pictures is the elevation of the Convocation hall that has been pending for long and is one of the more pressing needs of an institute of our stature. Its farewell season and it is time to yet again bid adieu to a wonderful batch passing through the hallowed portals of our institute. We have dedicated the whole center fold to the passing out batch. It is also time for a change of hands at Renesa and we hope the infusion of new blood will keep the spirit of Renesa burning bright and maybe even lead to a change for the better.

Inspite of all this, the year that went by will certainly not be remembered in any glowing terms. Rather it will be known as the year when the activities of the whole college was held hostage in the name of a petty scuffle, the year when meritocracy in leadership attained dubious distinction. The experiment as it is now being called is underway to find whether a committee of grade curve worshipers can actually run a college for a year without all the so called politics and its fallouts. Autocracy has found the sheepskin it was waiting for all along.

The issue here is not whether the experiment does really turn out to be successful. Maybe it will, most probably not. The issue here is whether all of this is good for the institute. Colleges have traditionally been bastions of free thought and free speech, places where rebellious young men and women cry out hoarse over every injustice,seeding grounds for the basic lessons of civil society and democracy. But when such measures as the setting up of a non representative student council are taken and attempts at censorship are made the question begs to asked? Is the college losing its spirit in its race towards technical excellence? Is there no room for personal freedoms in the pursuit of higher TEQIP ratings? Are kitsch new labs and mega hostels the only criteria for the growth of the institute?

SVNIT is an institute of young adults and one of the basic needs of every such individual is freedom- the freedom to choose what is good for him or her. A petty fight is never a reason enough for the democratic rights of a whole institution to be revoked. The decision not to trust the students to manage themselves was not necessarily the cleverest solution to the problem that was at hand. Nobody likes somebody else to make decisions for them and hence a democratic system. History has proven that autocracy has never been an ideal form of governance. All that it has ever led to is discontentment and violent revolutions.

Now is the time to decide whether we decide to label ourselves as an institute of higher learning or restrict ourselves to the rather narrow definition of a technical institute. Do we graduate as politically naive, submissive technical hands manning the back offices of first world nations or do we graduate as free thinking, creative and liberal minded citizens of the free world? Choose now, Choose wisely.

Adieu !