IIT Kharagpur basks in alumnus Kejriwal’s glory

KOLKATA: At IIT Kharagpur, all eyes were on Ritesh Singh on Monday. The MTech student of computer science and engineering was surrounded by friends and swamped with congratulatory messages from those away from the campus due to the winter break. The campus had been celebrating since Sunday afternoon. Students donning Kejriwal-like caps came out in large numbers and engaged in animated conversations throughout the day. Ritesh has been an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) insider for the past one year, the only one on the campus. And AAP leader Arvind Kejrwal is an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, being a mechanical engineering BTech of the 1989 batch However, not many on the campus showed interest in him at till the Delhi assembly election results started tumbling in on Sunday. "The Delhi elections were an acid test," Singh said. "The central party leadership had asked all of us to lie low till the results were declared. Now that we've been able to prove our point, we'll get instructions about the next course of action. Kolkata already has 3,000-plus enrolled AAP members who too are waiting, just like me, for the future course of action." Singh said Kejriwal is due to visit the city towards mid-January. "There are some cities like Mumbai where AAP already has some popular leaders like Anjali Daman and Mayank Gandhi," he said. "In Kolkata such leadership needs to emerge. Before the Delhi polls we were told never to discuss local issues elsewhere in the country. We were told that the local issues experiment is totally targeted for the Delhi polls." To celebrate AAP's success, the IIT Kharagpur community has floated three Facebook pages, which have already been filled with hundreds of congratulatory messages from students present and past. One page has been floated by the IIT Kharagpur alumni cell. A web poster designed by it — congratulating Kejriwal — has gone viral among the community. The other two pages, iitkgpaap and aamaadmikgp, have also seen fast and furious interaction since Sunday.

One message read: "Never underestimate power of a common man. Feeling proud being a small part of this political revolution....Congrats to all Kgp janta."

Photographs of students donning Kejriwal-like topis and celebrating were also posted on Facebook by IIT Kharagpur students. "It seems that AAP is the only solution to India's problems. We hope all the bright and promising students of the campus join the party because only they and not traditional politicians can make it to AAP," said Atal Ashutosh, a student who has already joined hands with Singh.

Though the faculty members could not openly flaunt their admiration for Kejriwal because their job does not permit it, many apparently discussed him through the day. Shankar Shome, the seniormost faculty member and Kejriwal's former teacher, said: "Indeed, he has made us proud. He has chosen the less-trodden path of social service and has my best wishes." Singh had opted out of placements last year so he could spend time in New Delhi and get to know the central AAP leadership. After his formal association was cemented, he returned to the IIT Kharagpur campus and enrolled for the MTech programme. As a national executive of the party, his job was initially to monitor the online portal of the party and design posters. His job now is to sensitise people about the principles of AAP   AKANKSHA SHANU  PGDM 1st SEM.