Rumble in the Jungle (2004)

MI team selection has always created a bustle on the campus. This year the news of elections in MI created waves with people fighting both for and against the concept. Karthik N. presents a report.

It started in 1973. In its latest “wild” version, it once again did not fail to enthrall one and all. It still continues to be one of the most promising and enjoyable student activities on campus. Mood Indigo this year witnessed a major change in the selection process of the Overall Co-ordinators (OCs) and Core Group Members (CGs).

After weeks of debate and discussion among various student representatives and past and present MI core team members (refer to the article “The Mood Point” in InsIghT’s February issue) the Dean of Student Affairs decided that the OCs and CGs would be elected this year, as opposed to the nomination process which has been followed consistently in the past. The main motivation behind this exercise was to separate the selection of the MI team from the process of institute elections and, more specifically, from the election of the GS Cult. The election for the OC’s took place on the 26th of March and those for the CG’s took place on the 27th of March.

All Core Group members of MI 2001 were eligible for the posts of the OC’s. The electorate comprised of people who had worked for the fest. The old and the new GS Cult, the outgoing OCs and CGs formed Block A whereas the coordinators and organizers of the previous team formed Block B. Block A was given 40% weightage and Block B, the rest. The electorate was required to pick two choices for the OCs from the list of competing CGs. A visible flaw in this method was that certain departments, that had a large number of co-ordinators and organizers, were weighed at par with the other departments. Perhaps, weighing their votes accordingly would have been a better idea.

For the election of the CGs, the two elected OC’s, the old OC’s, the GS Cult, both old and new, and the outgoing CGs of the respective departments formed Block A. The coordinators and organizers of a department formed Block B for that department. The weights were 40% to Block A and 60% to Block B. This percentage of weights works fine for departments with a larger number of Block B members, but with departments with number of Block B members comparable to that of Block A members, the weights of an organizer and the concerned past CG may be the same. This flaw also needs to be taken care of in any future formulation.

The debate still rages on as to whether this process of MI team formation is an improvement over the previous one and whether elections in MI should be made a permanent feature. The newly elected OCs – Gaurav Rathore and Adarsh Joshi, while commenting about the appointment procedure, stated that a committee, of which the OCs would be a part, would be formed to review the procedure. They were also very pleased with the new team and hope to put up a rocking Mood Indigo 2002. We wish them all the best in their efforts!

The author is a 3rd year BTech student in the CSE Dept.