Majlis – The Theatre and Debating Society of BIMTECH organized an interdepartmental, student-faculty, debate competition on 8th of December 2020. The event turned out to be a highly engaging and interesting one. It received an astonishing response from all the departments. Not only the students but faculty members were equally eager to know which side will win the fierce competition. The battle of words was done between two teams. Supporting For side were Prof. R J Masilamani and Ishita Kumar from DM (and also from Editorial conduit) and Prof. K R Chari and Mugdha Kumar from IB. Whereas, Prof. Pratik Priyadarshi and Vasu Gupta from IBM and Prof. Manoj Pant and Sankhabrata Chowdhury from RM, were fighting Against the motion.

It was an honour to have Prof. Sangeeta Shukla as the judge for the competition because her contribution towards Majlis as a society is undeniable. Dr. Amit Nagpal, moderator of the debate, did a wonderful job in managing the flow of debate, informing participants when it went off-track, kept a note of time and also asked relevant questions at the end of the debate. Prof. Saloni Sinha, mentor of Majlis, gracefully pulled off the event. Her supportive words acted like a lighthouse for the team throughout the event.

The most important element of any debate is the topic on which competing teams have to speak For and Against. Considering the vitality of it, the topic for the debate was selected after a lot of brainstorming by the team members of Majlis along with Prof. Saloni. Consequently, the team came up with a highly controversial notion, “Internet: A Friend or A Foe for Human Rights”.

The flow of the event was such that the speakers began by an opening remark, followed by open house for twenty minutes. At the end, the audience and the moderator asked questions to them. The entire event was majorly successful because of the fierce arguments, cross questioning and targeting by the speakers. The judge awarded, Ishita Kumar, the best orator of the debate. Through voting done by the student’s panel, ‘Against’ side was made the Winner of the competition. Team IBM and team RM bagged the title of winners.

The event came to an end with the announcement of winners, vote of thanks and a promise by the Majlis family to be back with even more engaging events in near future. The importance of student faculty debate is immense when it comes to the advantages it has to offer to the students as well as the audience. The students get to learn a lot from the faculty members they are paired up with. Also, the quality of arguments raised by the teams is enhanced with the involvement of faculty members in the debate.

Majlis will continue to organize such events in future that contribute to the overall growth of the students and provide a great opportunity for learning and growth.