India, the biggest democracy in the world is proud of the fact that a country of one billion, with nations within the Nation; where landscape, culture and language change every hundred kilometres, has still remained united as one - only through the biggest interaction of politically expressed differences, by way of debates in this living democracy.
The soul of India is its democracy and the heartbeat must be the debates as heard from the by- lanes of small towns to the parliament, giving hope for every citizen to be heard and his ideas represented.
GENERAL RULES OF THE DEBATE:
Date: February 11th, 2012
Time: 11 a.m. onwards.
Venue: AAROHAN arena, NIT Durgapur.
ROUND 1:
Participating teams are divided into four equal groups.
The four groups occupy the floor in turns, ie. at a time only one group occupies the floor.
The debate will be a modified Oxford style debate.
The motion for the debate will be announced on February 8th on the website.
Each team shall have two and only two members.
- One speaker will speak for the motion.
- The other will speak against the motion.
- The order in which the participants shall speak will be chosen by a draw of lots.
- Each participant, apart from the first will be given 3+1(may be used for rebuttal or summarising as per the choice of the speaker) minutes to speak.
- The first speaker will be given a time of 3 minutes and 30 seconds when she/he first speaks, and 1 minute (for rebuttal or summarising) at the conclusion of the debate when all the other speakers have spoken.
- The first speaker will speak for the motion. The second speaker will speak against the motion and thereafter it shall be alternate.
- At the end of 4 minutes, the other participants will get an opportunity to ask a question to the person who has spoken. In order to ask a question, you must raise your hand and notify the moderator. The moderator selects the person to ask a question. Both the question and answering will have to be wrapped up in 2 minutes for each speaker. Only one question is permissible for each speaker.
- The person who is speaking for the motion can be asked a question only by someone who is speaking against the motion and vice-versa, but team-mates are not allowed to question each other.
- There are no points for asking questions, but a speaker is awarded points for answering the question asked to him. In case no questions are asked to a speaker, by the other speakers or the judges, she/he will be awarded full marks for the question-answer section.
- Each participant is allowed to carry cue cards or his speech to the dais and may refer to his speech, but constant reading out his/her speech is not allowed and is subjected to punishments.
- 1 team gets selected from each of the groups on the basis of their cumulative points and they qualify to the next round. Therefore, there are 4 teams who qualify for Round 2.
The debate will be a modified American Parliamentary style debate.
The motion for the debate will be of weeks on February 8th on the website.
Four teams occupy the floor. Two teams represent the 'proposition' speaking 'in favour' of the motion and two teams represent the 'opposition' speaking 'against' the motion that will be decided by drawing of lots.
The order and timing of the speech is as follows:
'Proposition' team 1: 7 minutes
'Opposition' team 1: 7 minutes
'Proposition' team 2: 7 minutes
'Opposition' team 2: 7 minutes
Teams are given a total speaking time of 7min in which the opposition teams can raise Point of Interrogation (POI) in the intermediate unprotected 5min (excluding the first 1 minute and the last 1 minute). After the completion of the 5min time, no team can raise any POI. The POI should be on the basis of logic or information. The team (both the speakers) as a whole presents the arguments.
- POI's should be offered by members of the opposite side only.
- POI's should be offered in unprotected time, i.e. after the first minute and before the last minute of each speech.
- The speaker can choose to answer the POI raised or ignore it.
Each team is then allowed to summarize their points and arguments in 1 min.
At the end of the Round 2, the panellist declares the motion passed or not, and winners are declared.
JUDGING CRITERIA
Teams will be marked on
- Content: Knowledge and Depth.
- Presentation: Style and delivery, Capacity to engage the attention of the audience, Language, Lucidity, Precision and adhering to the time limits.
- Quality: The debate will also be judged on the quality of the arguments, the strength of the rhetoric, the charisma of the speaker, the quality of the humour, the ability to think on one's feet and, of course, the teamwork.
- Strength: The emphasis is also on strength,analytical skills and style of the argument.
DATES
To register, send in a mail to anurag.saha@ccanitd.in by February 5th, 2012.
Topics for the debates will be updated on February 8th, 2012.
Prelims for the selection of NIT Durgapur teams to take place on February 7th, 2012. Registrations will not be accepted after February 5th, 2012.
Anurag Saha
(+91)9932862135
anurag.saha@ccanitd.in
Ayanti Ghosh
(+91)8670071738