NLSIU wins Nalsars 2nd Inter Varsity Debate University of Cambridge declared runners-up

A team from National Law School of India University (NLSIU) comprising of Badrinarayanan Seetharaman and Sounak Sarkar won the 2nd Nalsar Inter Varsity Debate held from April 5-8, 2012. The second place was taken by the University of Cambridge, with a team comprising of Lucas Li and Ashish Kumar. The Best Speaker was awarded to Vipul Nanda from NLSIU and the Best Adjudicator prize went to Aditya Shetty from Sardar Patel Institute of Technology. The Novice Finals were won by IIT Bombay..The four-day event saw participation from 64 teams spread across 5 countries. There was also a separate pool for novice teams in which were placed teams who had participated in two or less than two debates..The finals of the debate saw NLSIU face off against University of Cambridge, IIT Bombay and a cross team between IIT Bombay and the Technical University of Munich. The motion for the finals was “This house believes that grave economic inequality justifies a violent revolution”. NLSIU was Opening Government and the cross team was Closing Government. Cambridge was Opening Opposition, while Closing Opposition was IIT Bombay. The Grand Finals was judged by Aashay Sahai, Sharmila Parmanand, Suthen ‘Tate’ Thomas, Aditya Shetty, Ajay Kumar, Anees Backer and Yashaswini Rajeshwar.Speaking to Bar & Bench, convener of Nalsar’s Literary & Debating Society Vishwajit Sadananda said that there has been a drastic improvement in the level of competition as compared to last year’s edition. “This is the third British Parliamentary (BP) tournament India has seen and the participants had a better grasp over the format compared to last year’s IV which was the first ever BP tournament in India.” The participation of international teams such as that from the University of Cambridge also helped improve the quality of the debate, notes Vishwajit..Discussing the future plans, Vishwajit says that given the response they received for this year’s edition, it is quite likely that the tourney will see even greater participation the next time around. The next IV Debate might take place in October itself, says Vishwajit, since they want the IV Debate to become a training ground for both, the Asian BP as well as the World University Debating Championship..Despite the substantial increase in number of participants, Vishwajit is quick to point out that they do not want to compromise on quality for the sake of greater participation. “Our primary goal”, clarifies Vishwajit, “will be to up the standards of adjudication by bringing in more international adjudicators on board.”