04 Aug 2016|Noida | F1 MDP Room, E 2 Seminar Hall
Inter Institution Debate Competition at Amity University
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“Truth is hammered out on the anvil of dissent discussion and debate”, a popular adage that serves as the cornerstone of the university debate club dubbed as “The Debate Disciples”. The club was formally inducted into the swarm of university clubs in 2015. Albeitin its nascency the club has infused and augmented the temper of inquiry in all the individuals who have come in contact with it, as participants or as audience.
The Debate Disciples recently held a Inter-Institution competition at the university level which sought the best talent various institutions of Amity Universe had to offer. Over 30 teams took part from various institutions like Amity Law School-I, Amity Law School-II, Amity School of Communications,Amity Institute of Psychology, Amity School of Engineering and Technology,Amity Institute of Information Technology, Amity Institute of Food Technology, Amity Institute of Virology and Immunology, RICS SBE, Amity Institute of Neuropsychology and Neurosciences, Amity Business School, ACCF, Amity Institute of Geo-information and Remote Sensing, which is representative of the clubs popularity amongst students and faculty alike.
The format for the competition was of British Parliamentary type with 2 minutes for each speaker to present their arguments and convince the judges. The event was bifurcated into a preliminary round and a finale. The topic that was presented to the teams in the first round was contemporary and of national importance ie “Caste Based Reservation would increase the divide in the society”. The objective of the first round was to identify the quality of arguments presented by each team hence the topic was provided to the teams a night before the competition began.The jury for the first round was - Dr. Sumitra Singh, Dr. Niru Sharan, Prof.(Dr.) S.K. Laroiya . Thesecond round was specifically tailored to gauge the ingenuity, spontaneity,quality and overall presentation skill of the finalists, hence the topic was provided 15 mins prior to the finale. The topic for the finale was scrupulously selected to understand the level of participant’s knowledge and critical analysis about an issue that has invoked quite a controversy through the decade. The topic for the finale was “Selective abortion should be made a Human right”.
The jury for the finale was Ms. Savita Mehta , VP Media , Prof. (Dr.)S.K. Laroiya , Dr. Alpana Kakkar , Dy. DSW & Mr. Devesh Kumar , faculty from AIESR
The two finalists were team Equipe (Ms Aisha Khan and Ms Urvashi Chauhan from ALS1 ) and Team Mystic (Ms Nishta Ghosh and Ms Meghna Shahi from AIPS) who battled for the grand prize and an executive membership at the University Debate club. Team Mystic displayed a candor that was par to none which was only matched by the aplomb of team Equipe . Team Mystic from Amity Institute of Psychology ,was declared as the winner of the Inter-Institution competition but it was also made clear to all that the difference between the two teams was a hairline which showed the intensity and the level of debating of both the teams.
The competition was held as a two pronged event, firstly to invoke a sense of scrutiny amongst the student intelligentsia and second to recruit the next generation of officer bearers and co-ordinators for the prestigious University debate club. Amongst the teams that participated, many have been selected as the executive members and office bearers but the real test of the club is yet to come at its maiden National level competition proposed by Deputy Dean of Student Welfare , Dr Alpana Kakkar, who also heads various other clubs of the university.