The APOGEE English Press sat down with the coordinator of the Debating Society (DebSoc), Akshatha Sabaji, to gain insight into the workings of the club leading up to the fest.

As of 2024, the club no longer works with the CoStAA and StuCCA under the fest banner. Akshatha explained that this was for the purpose of optimisation. According to Akshatha, the channels available to the Department of Publicity and Correspondence were not effective for the publicising of parliamentary debates. The outreach and management for their events is now done independently by DebSoc, which, Akshatha explained, cut down on the time required to process the remuneration and prize money for the winners. 

DebSoc conducts two tournaments each year—one per semester, both of which are a part of the biggest parliamentary debating tournaments nationwide. Their event this semester, an Inter-varsity British Parliamentary Debate, will be conducted online before the start of the fest. Akshatha mentioned that it would pit four teams against each other, as opposed to the standard two. 

The publicity for the event started three months ago. Akshatha explained that the preparations for the event were almost complete, having invited the motion makers and equity officers, and having set up the software that creates the match-ups for the competition. 

She mentioned that around 72 teams would be participating this year. All teams would have five rounds of playoffs, after which a rank list would be generated based on their performances. The top sixteen teams would then move on to the next round of knockouts, where two teams debate against each other and the winner moves ahead until only one is left.

When asked about the problems faced by the club, Akshatha said that initially they had not received an encouraging response, which she had found concerning. She attributed this to the fact that DebSoc started publicity quite early. She added that as the dates for the event drew closer, the number of registrations increased exponentially. 

Talking about her experience in the club, Akshatha said that being the president of a club has been very special to her and has defined her time on campus. She added that most of the seniors she highly respected were ‘DebSoc products’, and that the opportunity to make the same impact on her juniors’ lives was a responsibility she took very seriously.

Akshatha concluded by advising the general BITSian to take a step back, appreciate the effort  that goes into organising a fest, and focus on the positive aspects instead of dwelling on the negative ones.