War Of Words

Updated on: Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Operating on the principle that the backbone of a democracy is the freedom of discourse and debate, the city played host to the regional finals of Debating Matters India 2011 on September 27. The British Council in association with the Institute of Ideas, UK, organised the event with support from title sponsors Shell Companies in India and Wellcome Trust, and venue partner for Kolkata, South City International School. Film and television actor, Arjun Chakraborty gave away the awards and certificates to the participating teams.

“The debate is on the role of individuals in civil society, a mere glance at the headlines in the newspaper does not qualify as participation in the functioning of a democracy. We need to ponder upon the implications. Debating Matters India, a national schools’ debate competition, is an endeavour to make young people think about real world issues in depth and discuss them in detail to arrive at a possible solution,” said Helen Birtwistle, chairperson of DMI and moderator for the day.

The judges for the regional finals Kolkata were Shirley Lawes, educationist, Institute of Education, University of London, Dr Abhijit Kar, scientist and professor and Ajitha Menon, journalist. “It has been a superior level of debating. The level of research conducted by the students has been most impressive. We had to take some very difficult decisions,” commented Shirley.

The motion of the house was ‘civil society activists are undermining India’s democracy’ and the two schools battling it out for a spot in the national finals were Our Lady Queen of the Missions School, Kolkata and DAV Public School Unit-8, Bhubaneswar, the last two standing out of the final top twelve. The erudite duo of Payaswini Tailor and Arushi Dhupia from QMS, speaking for the motion, were declared the winners with Payaswini adjudged the ‘most commendable contributor’ of the day.

The winners of the regional finals will go on to compete at the national finals to be held at British Council New Delhi from November 19-20, 2011. The school crowned the winners of Debating Matters India 2011 will travel to London in an all-expenses paid trip to participate in a showcase debate with the UK champions.

War Of Words

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