Quotable quotes of well-known personalities, statistics, analysis, charisma – the finals of ‘The Bait' debating competition on Friday saw the participating students use all these and much more to drive home their point.
The competition, which began on Thursday, was planned and organised by The Debate Club, an initiative of the students of Bhavan's Rajaji Vidyashram and Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao School. Teams from 24 schools participated in the debate.
The finals were fought by the teams representing Chettinad Vidyashram and Sriram Law Academy for around two hours, with the latter being awarded the first prize.
It was an intense debate where the teams had to put their research and knowledge to reason out every argument on the topic ‘Indian democracy, a neo-political system by itself, is anarchy by another name.'
Shreya Murali and P. Himabindu of Sriram Law Academy cited examples to prove that it is India's self-corrective mechanism that keeps the democracy growing. Nanditha and Rangashree represented Chettinad Vidyashram. The finalists were chosen by their respective team. A team comprised five members.
A round of questions by each of the four judges, some questions from the audience and the teams cross questioning each other were the other rounds.
The winning team said defeating PSBB, KK Nagar, in the quarter finals was like crossing their biggest hurdle.
The judges said that competition brought out the fact that the art of debating is alive in the city. Former Central Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal said the debate was a small sample of India's wide democracy and the excitement show by the audience and participants was the best part of everything. Commodore Shekar from Eastern Indian Naval Command, said debating conditions the mind to think, accept differences of opinion…but the best part is it is based on conviction. Sanjay Pinto, Executive Editor, NDTV-Hindu and George Thomas, Editor, Indian Journal for Medical Ethics, were the other judges for the final.
J. Ajeeth Prasath Jain, senior principal, Bhavan's Rajai Vidyashram, Shalini Pillay, principal, Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao School, Prema Kumar, correspondent, Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao School and P.S. Dalal, president, Madras Seva Sadan participated.
