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“Galaxy,” the renowned interhall cultural championship, is a pivotal component of the annual General Championship hosted by the Gymkhana at IIT Kanpur. It stands as a testament to the multifaceted talents present within the clubs of the Media and Cultural Council (MnC) while also serving as a talent scouting ground for exceptional individuals for the inter-IIT Cult Meet. Galaxy offers a dynamic platform for students to showcase their creativity, skills, and passions through a diverse range of competitions. This event not only encourages enthusiastic participation from freshers but also provides them with an immersive introduction to the rich cultural tapestry of IIT Kanpur.
This year, the MnC council conducted its 39th Edition of Galaxy from 29th January 2024 to 12th February 2024.
5 Pools participated in this competition, namely, Aryans, Nawabs, Kshatriyas, Peshwas and Shauryas.
In the 9th special meeting of the Student’s Senate on 20th March 2024, the “Post Conduction Report ”, (PCR) of Galaxy’24 was to be discussed, and recommendations were to be provided. Usually, after the post-conduction report is passed, the results are formally announced, and the event comes to a formal end.
The official standings of the pools according to the post-conduction report presented by the MnC Council in the Senate were :
- Shauryas
- Aryans
- Nawabs
- Kshatriyas
- Peshwas
However, the post-conduction report was not passed in the Senate by a “majority” vote, and thus Galaxy’24 was scrapped.
This trend of various events within the General Championship, such as Takneek and Galaxy, being scrapped for various reasons, has been observed for the past 2-3 years.In this article, we’ve explored a range of viewpoints and reasons behind the decision to scrap Galaxy’ 24, including perspectives from various stakeholders. We’ve also delved into the potential effects of this decision.
Students’ Senate:
The ultimate decision of whether Galaxy should be scrapped lies in the Students’ Senate’s hands. We talked with Prashant Mishra, the current Chairperson, Students’ Senate for the tenure 2023-24. Prashant emphasised that one of the significant reasons for Galaxy being scrapped is that halls are too obsessed with the tag and don’t want another hall to win it;
“The root cause lies in how easy it is to invalidate the GC results at the end through the voting mechanism. Rationality and discussions hold no weight at the end. It’s so visible that every time, 4 pools will not win and only 1 would, the 4 or even fewer could just gang up to invalidate things through voting,cause no one comes to actually discuss things at the Senate Hall, but they come prepared with votes.” ~ Prashant Mishra, Chairperson, Students’ (2023-24).
Prashant further added that no event is perfect, and there are some flaws in every major event, but that doesn’t mean we should scrap the entire competition. He stated that “ there were no major blunders this time.”
When asked what transpired in the Senate on the eve Galaxy was scrapped, Nitin Kumar, Institute Secretary, MnC, said that the senate meeting was quite chaotic.
“Some pools came with clear intention to scrap Galaxy and a few others wanted to defend, which resulted in chaos. We (Chairperson, President as well as the MnC core team) tried to have a proper discussion, but they all were not interested in listening and were just shouting. It was complete chaos so nothing we said mattered.” ~ Nitin Kumar, IS, MnC council
Anjali Pandey, pool captain of Shauryas and Mayank Shekhar, pool captain of Aryans also reflected that there was not enough time provided to give clarifications. Without checking the credibility of claims made, voting was called too soon. Both of them added that technically, the pools weren’t allowed to raise contention in the Senate meeting since the deadline for raising it had already passed, but due to pressure from GBM, the contentions were taken up.
In interviews with pool captains, a critical issue that emerged as a leading cause for the cancellation of Galaxy’24 was due to confusion on the part of the organising team, resulting in a mistaken swap of Hall 11 and Hall 7 between the Kshatriyas and Peshwas.
However, Kaustubh Agarwal, General Secretary, MnC, clarified that this problem was acknowledged and resolved earlier in the pool captains meeting itself.
The SGRC and the GRC
Among the issues raised in the senate regarding Galaxy, a lot of them expressed concerns against the decision of the SGRC and GRC. Student Grievance Redressal Committee (SGRC) is constituted so that any grievances not solved by the organising team shall go to the SGRC. The SGRC comprised the following members, one from each pool:
- Sheeshram Choudhary (Convener), Hall 3
- Ashish Gautam, Hall 2
- Ayush Anand, Hall 5
- Nishi Mehta, Hall 12
- Sanmati Dhananjay Pande, Hall 6
The Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) is constituted so that any grievances not solved by the organising team and SGRC shall go to the GRC. The GRC comprises of the following:
- Dean, Student Affairs
- Associate Dean, Students’ Activities
- Faculty Counsellor, Media & Cultural Council
- President, Students Gymkhana
- Chairperson, Students’ Senate
According to the Pre conduction report of Galaxy, which was passed in the Senate, “the decision of GRC will be final; no reinvestigation related concerns shall be addressed further.”
The SGRC considered seven contentions received via Google form floated. Notably, the contention regarding swapping of halls 7 and 11 was not one of the contentions. After deliberating on all the contentions, the positions of pools Aryans and Nawabs in the results were exchanged, with Aryans moving to 2nd place and Nawabs to 3rd. We further discussed this matter with committee members:
According to Sheeshram, Sanmati and Nishi, members of SGRC had a calm and unbiased discussion on all the contentions, and unanimous decisions were taken by them.
“Decisions were made on a rational basis, in reference to Pre Conduction Report as well as consultation with respective individuals if required.” ~ Sanmati Pande, member of the SGRC
Ayush Anand had a contrasting opinion regarding this. He felt that there existed a Hall Bias within SGRC. He pointed out that while the Pool captain of Nawabs had requested the opportunity to explain their side of the story in the contention document, they were not given the chance. In contrast, an individual from Pool Aryans, other than the pool captain, who had not explicitly requested a chance to provide clarification in the contention document, was afforded the opportunity to provide clarifications.
“If every contention was discussed properly , the standings would have remained the same. But logic took a backseat even in the SGRC meet.” ~ Ayush Anand, member of the SGRC
The Pool Captain of Nawabs, Mukul Saini, also had issues with SGRC and GRC. He said that committees have been given excessive power, which can be used to change decisions and results without considering the opinion of MnC Gensec or Pool Captains. He believed that because the members of SGRC and GRC had no relation with the MnC Council, they did not have the expertise to deal with the contentions of Galaxy.
Similarly, some members of the organizing committee contended that the senators lacked a comprehensive understanding of Galaxy, and therefore could not fairly determine whether Galaxy should be scrapped or not.
As per Kaustubh, the SGRC is passed by the senate itself and thus is expected to be unbiased. He added that the contention filed is supposed to contain all the details required, and if further clarifications are needed, then SGRC contacts the core team and the pool captains.
“The purpose of SGRC and GRC is to get an unbiased third perspective. If members of these committees would be the MnC council core team themselves, then it would be no different from the pool captain meets.” ~ Kaustubh Agarwal, General Secretary, MnC.
Some pool captains also cast doubt upon GRC, claiming that the professors are generally unaware, and essentially, the decision then rests with the Chairperson and President, who may have their own biases. Countering this, Kaustubh reiterated that the contention is supposed to contain the complete details; hence, like the SGRC, the GRC committee members are well informed, and then they come to a decision based on the facts presented.
The Hall Perspective
A clear divide seemed to be present in the viewpoint of the halls, with the Shauryas and Aryans on one side and the Nawabs, Peshwas and Kshatriyas on the other; however, one thing which was universally acknowledged was the waste of effort of the junior batches, especially the Y23 freshers.
The pool captain of Nawabs, Mukul Saini, felt that there was a lot of bias in the conduction of events. He further added that “while some contentions had already been resolved and agreed to in the pool cap meets, the decisions were altered once they were raised in the SGRC.”
“The major reason for scrapping Galaxy was lack of transparency in conduction and the biases of the organizing committee in some selective events” ~ Gagan Kumar, pool captain of Peshwas
However, Pool Aryans and Shauryas emphasized that all concerns had been thoroughly discussed, and they asserted that the other halls altered their statements during the Senate meeting.They also expressed regret over the growing hall divide and highlighted that senators often act solely as representatives of their respective halls.
Organising Committee
We sought the perspective of the organising team regarding the event as a whole. The core team members acknowledged their error in communication regarding the PG Hall Swapping. Despite attempting to address the issue during the pool captains’ meeting, after extensive deliberation, they collectively concluded that there was no feasible solution available, thus opting to move forward.
Nitin Kumar, the Institute Secretary of the MnC Council, pointed out a crucial misunderstanding among certain pool participants regarding the subjective nature of cultural events. He mentioned that the Pre Conduction Report had been thoroughly discussed and presented to the Senate four days prior without any objections initially. However, objections in PCR arose later from the same individuals following their defeat.
“The core team consists of 4 Members – 1 from Hall 3, 1 from Hall 12 and 2 from Hall 2, so the allegation of being biased towards Hall 6 or Hall 3 makes no sense.” ~ Nitin Kumar, IS
When asked about the absence of minutes of the pool captains’ meet, Nitin argued that there was no mandate about having minutes, and they made it clear in the meet itself that they are not maintaining minutes. The primary reason for that was the meetings were too long and chaotic, making it challenging to write minutes. However, he also suggests that minutes should be maintained from the next edition to prevent people from changing their statements later on.
The Aftermath
Several pool captains, as well as members of the organising committee and the SGRC, acknowledged that the efforts of over a thousand students of all halls were wasted.
“Lot of juniors worked in Galaxy despite their quizzes, labs; yet they got no recognition; this will lead to a steep decrease in participation” ~ Aryan Prajapati, Cultural Secretary of Hall 2
According to Anjali, this year’s Galaxy was especially important for Shauryas, who won for the first time in history.
“ The participants had also invested in personal money for the event and the scrap had left them feeling disheartened. Students had given day and night for this event and some even broke down when they found out that their efforts will not be recognised.” ~ Anjali Pandey, Pool Captain, Shauryas.
“Even the organising committee gets demotivated because even after investing a lot of time and effort, if the event gets scrapped without any concrete reasons then they have no scope of improvement in the upcoming tenure too and this trend of scraping would simply continue.” ~Kaustubh Agarwal, GenSec, MnC
After Galaxy was scrapped, various proposals were made by the senators and the Chairperson on the senate list suggesting measures that could avoid the scrapping of GC in future. While such deliberations are underway it is to be noted that no rule is infallible, and if people are bent on misusing them, they would find one way or another.
Pratyush Rai, the last Students’ Gymkhana President under whom the GC results were passed, said that it was saddening to hear about the Galaxy scrap, as it’s disheartening to the participating students who have put in so much effort.
He stressed that it is imperative on the part of the organisers (i.e. Pool Leadership, Senate and Gymkhana) to ensure that conclusive results are shared. He highlighted that not sharing the final results leads to a public message of unprofessional conduct on the part of the organisers, as it indicates that we were not able to conduct one of the main Gymkhana events in a fair and impartial manner.
He stated that historically, Gymkhana always tried its best to make sure that disputes are sorted during pool meets itself and senate-level discussions are avoided as pools typically have the most context of these matters and not the senate.
“Hall culture reviving is a major win; it should be cherished.It leads to Mentorship, relationships for life; however, it should be maintained that it does not enter the Senate or Gymkhana politics.”
~ Pratyush Rai, President Students’ Gymkhana (2018-19)
Written by: Chaitanya Nitawe, Dhriti Barnwal, Kaushal Jain, Nikhil Pothuganti, Vedant Bansod, Yeva Gupta
Edited by: Zainab Fatima
