Report and Results of The 2nd NLS Debate - Junior, 2012

Following up from our previous edition, The 2^nd NLS Debate – Junior was held from 22^nd – 25^th November, 2012 on the NLSIU Campus. The tournament began with an introductory workshop on how to debate, followed by three days of tournament. 45 participants fought it out in 5 preliminary rounds held over three days, followed by three elimination rounds on the third day of the tournament, in the Asians Parliamentary Format.

In the Grand Finals, the team ‘Spock’ representing Christ Junior College, and comprising of Ekta Chavan, Sourabh Ashok and Simran , faced off ‘The Justice League’ comprising of Sumedha Sircar, Aditya Ohrie and Gautam Kathuria representing National Public School, Indiranagar. The debate was on the motion, “This house will not allow reservation for students from economically weaker sections in private schools”, based on the recent judgment by the Indian Supreme Court holding the Right to Education Act allowing 25% reservations for economically weaker sections in private schools. The debate was won by the Opposition, NPS, Indiranagar on a majority verdict of a 6-1 split, demonstrating how close the contest was.

Samprada Patil, representing Christ Junior College, won the award for the ‘Best Speaker’ of the tournament, while Padma from National Public School, Indiranagar won the award for the ‘Most Stylish Speaker’, meant to reward the transition from other speaking competitions at the school level to this format.

With many teams coming back to this tournament and format for the second time in two years, we were thrilled to observe teams providing well developed arguments on several complex themes such as ethics and its role in a war, the moral value of justice, and many other themes. Speeches this year, in contrast to last year, were for 6 minutes, with 5 preliminary rounds and 3 main rounds. 

Here’s a summary of the results of the tournament:

The Top 8 Teams (in order of break)

1. Skadoosh [Christ Junior College] (Quarter-finalists)
2. Inventure 5 [Inventure Academy] (Semi-finalists)
3. The Justice League [National Public School, Indiranagar] (Winners)
4. Lawgical [National Public School, Indiranagar] (Quarter-finalists)
5. Spock [Christ Junior College] (Runners-up)
6. Inventure 1 [Inventure Academy] (Quarter-finalists)
7. The Devils [National Public School, Indiranagar](Quarter-finalists)
8. The Parliament [SSRVM] (Semi-finalists)

The Top 10 Speakers of the Tournament

1. Samprada Patil [Christ Junior College] (Best Speaker)
2. Rhea [Inventure Academy]
3. Shraddha [Inventure Academy]
4. Chirag [National Public School, Indiranagar]
5. Padma [National Public School, Indiranagar] (Most Stylish Speaker)
6. Simran Jain [Christ Junior College]
7. Malini Srikrishna [SSVRM]
8. Richa Rebello [Christ Junior College]
9. Sudarshan [Inventure Academy]
10. Shared by Shrishti and Amol [both from National Public School, Indiranagar]

The Motions

Round 1 (Prepared) [Free Speech and Liberty]

This house believes that social networking sites ought to be held responsible for inflammatory content posted by their users

Round 2 (Impromptu) [Social Norms]

This house will punish people who do not care of their parents in their old age

Round 3 (Prepared) [War and Morality]

This house condemns the use of drones for targeted killing

Round 4 (Impromptu) [Policy]

This house will give more votes to voters who have received university education

Round 5 (Impromptu) [Education]

This house will ban coaching centers for competitive exams

Quarter Finals (Impromptu) [Ethical Conflict]

This house believes that Dr. Manhattan should let Rorschach reveal the truth

Semi Finals (Impromptu) [Self-Determination]

This house believes that India should let Kashmir go

Grand Final (Prepared) [India’s Future]

This house will not allow reservation for students from economically weaker sections in private schools

We thank all those who helped us organize this tournament, and we look forward to returning even bigger and even better next year. Until then…