The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Delhi college talks its way to a trophy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 05, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Delhi college talks its way to a trophy

Staff Reporter

Analysis and logic to the fore at debate championship

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

COMPETITIVE SPIRIT: Students taking part in a debate on the National Law School of India University campus in Bangalore on Sunday.

BANGALORE: If those who had attended the finals of last year’s International Parliamentary Debate Championship organised by the National Law School of India University experienced a sense of deja vu they could not be faulted. For, the sixth championship on Sunday was a repetition of last year’s final between Faculty of Law, Colombo, and Ramjas, Delhi, with both teams strategising to the last word until Ramjas College, Delhi, took the trophy home.

This four-day event, which is co-sponsored by The Hindu and Kotak Mahindra, had 42 teams participating from 35 colleges. Nagaraj from Kotak Mahindra gave away the trophy to the winning team which comprised Prithvi Rohan Kapur, Harsh Malhotra and Kartik Misra.

The event was presided over by NLSIU Vice-Chancellor Jayagovind. Harsh Malhotra won the award for the best speaker. The same team from Ramjas College had lost out to another Sri Lankan team last year.

“It feels good to take the trophy home this time. The competition was good and they felt we were the best team. We are obviously happy,” said Harsh Malhotra.

NLSIU did not participate in the competition to make sure the game was fair but the joy of organising an event of such magnitude was evident. Students cheered for both teams and gave adequate ground support to the Sri Lankan team.

Topic

The finalists were given the topic, “This house will take away the powers of the judiciary to punish contempt of court.” While the team from Colombo posed as the government, as is the procedure in parliamentary debate, they defined the “house” as the British House of Commons.

“This year’s competition is more about analysis and logic rather than language or eloquence. With diverse themes such as sports, education, law and the like, knowledge and understanding of issues were put to test,” said Siddharth Chauhan, chief adjudicator of the competition. The Sri Lankan team was happy with the experience and said they wanted to get a feel of Bangalore before they leave. “The competition was tough. The Indian teams get many hours of practice with inter-college debates and so on. This is rather limited back home. This is my first time in India, it was nice to meet everybody,” said Luwie Niranjan, student from Faculty of Law, Colombo.

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