Student Debate: Freedom of Speech is Non-Negotiable (HRW Day 4)

STUDENT DEBATE:
Freedom of Speech is Non-Negotiable

TOPIC: Freedom of Speech is Non-negotiable.

DATE: 13th December, 2021.

PRIZE: RS 500.

NO. OF PRIZES: 2

TIME: 4:00 PM

MODERATOR: Prof. Sham Gulve and Atharva Kanthi.

JUGDE: Prof. Sham Gulve.

PLATFORM: Google Meet.

NO. OF PARTICIPANTS: 8 ( Agree Team- 4 & Disagree Team- 4)  

Agree Team Members: 

1- Soumiya Pabba.

2- Rohit Gupta. 

3- Pallavi Rathod. 

4- Sanjeevan Dab

Disagree Team Members: 

1- Vedanti Patil. 

2- Yamunadevi Gupta.

3- Khushi Vaishya.

4- Keisha Singh.

“For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate”. 

  -- Margaret Heffernan

    In amidst of Political Science Association’s (PSA) celebration of its flagship event the 'HUMAN RIGHTS WEEK', on Day 4, after having three sessions consecutively, PSA organized a Student Debate Competition for the students of the Wilson College. The topic opted for this competition was “Freedom of Speech is Non-Negotiable”. The Debate was principally moderated by Prof. Sham Gulve from the Political Science department of the Wilson College along with Atharva Kanthi, Vice-President of PSA. 

    As the event began, Prof. Sham introduced the Participants and the non-participant audience to the topic of Debate Competition and the Rules and regulations. The regulatory mandates were requisite to catenate with for the participants in order for the assessment of their grades in this Debate Competition. The algorithm of the time division was as follows:

    The Competition was fundamentally fractionated into 3 Parts. There were by and large 2 pivotal rounds and a conclusion round. The First opening Round was introductory and prefatory in nature where the member participants of both the Agree and Disagree, teams, were provided with 10 minutes each to present and establish their viewpoints as per their understanding and comprehensive perception of the debate topic. The 1st Opening Round was felicitously commenced with the opening statements of the Team Agree member participants, followed by the Disagree Team Member participants. They initiated their introductory speeches by clearly elucidating their stands of the debate topic, their arguments and why they chose that particular approach. Many of the member participants standardised their speech with many quotes, citations, data and interesting examples to stiffen and invigorate their arguments. 

    The Second Round was the Counter Round and both the teams were given only 20 minutes altogether. In this round the member participants of the Agree and Disagree teams confuted and counter-argued the other team members viewpoints indefatigably. Both Teams diligently coped with these differences of opinions by attempting to tackle the other team’s argument and giving rational and logical justifications to emphasise their viewpoints.  The debate argument was conjectured by the Conclusion Round presented by both of the teams. 

    In both the First i.e. the opening round and the 2nd Counter Round, the Agree and Disagree Teams debated about the definition of Hate Speech, the freedom of speech, arguments on the sedition of law and contempt of court, the disrespect which can be caused by infinite freedom of speech, they argued about the threat to Democracy which could be caused by the freedom of Speech, preventive detention, quoted Voltaire’s Right to speak, various articles, examples and citations were presented by both the teams as well. After the Conclusion Round, the Moderator and the Judge of this Debate Competition, Prof. Sham Gulve, evaluated the whole debate and the viewpoints, as well as arguments of each member participant of both the teams and further, proceeded to the Results. The marks of the participants of Team Agree and Team Disagree were set forth and Prof. Sham Gulve announced the two winners. Miss Pallavi Rathod from the Agree Team bagged the First Prize and the Second Prize was declared to Miss Keisha Singh from the Team Disagree with 39 and 38 Marks out of 50 respectively. 


    The event winded up with a formal Vote of Thanks, to appreciate the Participants, Judge and the Spectators for joining this great debate competition, given by the Vice-President of PSA, Atharva Kanthi. This Debate Competition on Day 4 of HRW Celebration turned out as an amazing and illustrious exchange of opinions from individuals of different perspectives. This debate and divergence of views enriched the participants and audience’s ideas and opinions, widen their horizons, and was an extremely fruitful experience. 

“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.”
 ~ Joseph Joubert.

Report drafted by Priyanka Mishra (TYBA)