NUJS student connects Election Commission to virtual world to spread awareness among youth

NUJS student Arjun Bhagi’s idea of connecting the Election Commission with the virtual world of social networking has been widely acknowledged by the Chief Election Commissioner..Arjun Bhagi is a second year BA LLB student who came up with this brilliant idea of connecting EC to cyberspace to spread voting awareness amongst the Indian youth..In January this year, a seminar on electoral reforms was organized by Ministry of Law and Justice and was hosted by NUJS where Arjun voluntarily offered to administer the CEC facebook page on behalf of the Commission..The young student was recently invited by the Chief Election Commissioner, Dr. Quraishi to share his views on how the Election Commission would benefit from social networking..CEC appreciated Arjun’s idea amidst of participants ranging from IT giants Google, senior Election Officers from Centre and States, Experts from the field of Communication, NSS stakeholders, senior bureaucrats, NGO’s etc.“I was humbled at the very outset when the CEC acknowledged my contribution of coming up with the concept of using Facebook to connect with the youth. He called out my name in the middle of his opening speech and said that ‘Mr. Bhagi, I took your opinion of starting and maintaining a facebook page very seriously ‘, receiving such appreciation from a respectable person like Hon’ble CEC, in front of a full audience, was truly an honour.” said Arjun Bhagi while speaking to Bar & Bench..Arjun during the workshop raised an opinion to start a special domain catering exclusively to the youth by the name of “ yuva.eci.nic.in” that would be a youth – centric, interactive yet informative portal, an official one – stop –gateway to all social medias..He further suggested that the social media should be structured in a cascading manner, so that at each level the target youths undergoing elections within 4-6 months can be catered exclusively and efficiently via mediums like facebook, twitter, YouTube, SMSs, etc..Dr. Quraishi and his Senior counterparts agreed to his suggestion and opined that such a youth portal will be a concrete step in this regard in addition to the requisite veracity and authenticity it shall have from the commission (an official youth – centric website from a Constitutional Body like the ECI would help in concertizing the faith and interest of the youth)..“The CEC was extremely serious about this project and I am sure that the ideas emerging out of this workshop will definitely be implemented. This campaign gave me an opportunity to meet and interact with highly designated people and was a great learning curve.” says Arjun..Arjun has now also received an offer from a Chief Electoral Officers (State Election head) to assist their State Commission in using the power of social media to reach the regional audience..Arjun has excitedly agreed to the offer and is all set to give his best in arousing the youth of the state to come out and vote on his visit to the commission next month..Arjun Bhagi chose law over his family business because of the sheer leverage to contribute to the society in pith and substance has indeed already carved his path in achieving his goal at this early juncture of his career.