Ramjas team wins LSR’s debate competition TASHI

Five of the seven student adjudicators gave the debate in favour of the Ramjas ‘B’ team. Siddhartha was adjudged the best speaker,and Rhea Chatterjee from Hindu College came second.

Pratham Sagar,Saaduzzaman and Shobhit Nanda,from various DU colleges,comprised ‘Sajmar’. In the 2010 edition of TASHI,‘Tibetan for Prosperity’,a team comprising a student each from Ramjas,St Stephen’s and Kirori Mal Colleges had walked away with the first prize.

The current edition of TASHI was organised over four days and saw the participation of 40 teams representing institutions from all over India. An adjudicators’ workshop was held on the first day — student adjudicators decided on all the ‘match-ups’. The second and third days saw each team go through six preliminary rounds each. The top eight teams went to the quarters.

The semi-finals were an all-Delhi University affair,with teams representing Hansraj,Hindu and Ramjas students making the cut. Unlike the finals,where only one motion was on the table,the teams were offered three motions to choose from in the semis. Teams going head-to-head had to come to a consensus,and in both cases,they chose to debate on ‘This house believes that ministers who have been sacked or forced to resign for gross incompetence should not be allowed to hold portfolios in the future’.

The team comprising Rhea Chatterjee,Radhika Saini and Ananya Kotia — students of Hindu and Hansraj colleges — spoke in favour of the motion. Ramjas ‘B,’ up against them,took the opposition’s role. Thus,Ananya took on the role of the Prime Minister,Rhea was his Deputy,and Radhika was the Whip. Karandeep,Siddhartha and Aanchal took on the respective roles in the opposition benches.

The debate began with a seven-minute speech by the PM describing the government’s stand on the matter. Ananya,who would later be taunted by the Opposition later for his constant shifting of the goalpost,said the Cabinet should retain the right to fire a minister,provided that a government agency or legal mechanism had found fault with him/her. Speaking for the Opposition,Karandeep argued that a minister could often be the fall guy for his political party.

The Indian Express was the media partner of the event.