The Hindi Activities Society organized Mock Parliament—their signature debating tournament—yesterday. Over 16 teams registered for the event, with participants coming in from colleges within the Delhi University. In the knockout tournament, teams were given their topic four minutes before the debate began. After this, they were assigned their motive house, following which they started speaking.

The debates progressed with a total of three speeches being made in parliamentary fashion. The first and the last speeches were one minute long, with the second one being two minutes.

The first minute consisted of both sides opening with basic remarks, following which two minutes were given to each side to counter their opponents’ points and to also expand on their own. A final minute was then given to make concluding remarks and give clarity to the whole discussion. Points were given primarily to logical superiority, and participants were encouraged to defend their stance by any means necessary. There was no fixed rule dictating which member of the two-person team was supposed to be speaking at what time, but participants were encouraged to split their speaking content evenly between each other. The topics that were debated upon were generally related to pertinent Indian socio-political issues, ranging from the need for a better censor board in India to the Sabarimala Temple case.

The first two debates were judged by students from various colleges who were members of the debating or MUNing societies there. Following these rounds, the chief guest for the event, Mahavir Singh—ex-secretary to the Rajasthan Government—came in to judge.

The finals for the event took place between two BITSian teams, one comprising undergraduate students Saksham and Dhruv, and the other being comprised of PhD scholars Aarif and Abhijeet. The motion for this debate pertained to article 35A of the constitution, and involved a discussion on whether Muslims are supposed to be given special non-secular privileges to follow Shariath. Ultimately, the undergraduate team secured the win following a well-delivered speech.