Motion for the Grand Finals

We are extremely pleased to bring to you the motion for the Grand Finals of the NLS Debate Junior 2013!

Since its entry into Indian politics one year back, the Aam Aadmi Party, led by the charismatic Arvind Kejriwal, has garnered significant public attention by promising to deliver a corruption-free brand of governance. The first formal test of the public's confidence in the party - the Delhi Assembly elections - is set to happen on December 4th 2013, which is barely a week away. Recently, public reactions to allegations that some of the party's candidates were corrupt provided a rare glimpse into the complex ways in which the Indian populace perceives the political force that the party has become. 

At the Grand Finals of the NLS Debate Junior, the two top teams of the tournament will be asked to imagine that the following set of fictional facts has unfolded: 

The Core Committee of the Aam Aadmi Party has come into possession of evidence that clearly demonstrates that Kejriwal engaged in an act of corruption while serving as an officer in the Indian Revenue Service. The Core Committee has reason to believe that it was an isolated act of corruption on his part, and that he will never do the same again. The Core Committee also realises that if they choose to suppress the evidence, the incident is unlikely to ever come to light. 

In this context, the motion for the Grand Finals is:

This House, being the Core Committee of the Aam Aadmi Party, will suppress this evidence.

With the short amount of time left till the elections, is it unreasonable for the Aam Aadmi Party to hope to maintain control over the information, if it chooses to release it? And would releasing the evidence amount to a blind adherence to the principle of transparency that risks the party's potential to deliver transparent governance as lawmakers if they win the election? On the other hand, does the Aam Aadmi Party, unlike any other party, have a special obligation to abhor corruption in any form? More pragmatically, could releasing the evidence in fact strengthen the party in the electoral race?

With these and more questions set to be explored, analysed and answered, the Grand Finals of this edition of the NLS Debate Junior promises to be an exciting and challenging affair. 

As a note, we'd like to thank Aashay Sahay, Sayan Sanyal and Sai Siddharth for this motion's idea.