QED, the annual debating tournament conducted by the Debating Society (DebSoc) will not be held this year. An Asian-Parliamentary style tournament, QED was into its 7th year before it was suspended. Punit Batra, the DebSoc coordinator for the first semester, and Abhinav Palaparthy, the second semester coordinator, explained the rationale behind the decision not to conduct the event this year, and why they believe QED will return next year to become a calendar staple once more.
DebSoc traditionally organizes two events each year – the Oasis Debate in October, and QED in February. Between planning for these events, calling participants, and making other logistical arrangements, a lot of DebSoc’s time gets consumed. Punit explained that most first years who join DebSoc didn’t understand debating at first – ‘You need to learn how to build a construct, how to build an argument, how to do justice to the role that’s given to you. It’s not something that you can learn overnight. It’s something you learn when you practice more often’. Punit felt that the time spent organizing both festivals could be put to better use by practising how to debate. Additionally, most first years were generally tasked with more menial aspects of organization such as timekeeping and cold-calling, while the fest went on for hours on end. All these factors resulted in a loss of interest in first years, and a subsequent lack of participation in regular sessions.
Both Punit and Abhinav feel that the shift in priorities has been effective. Last year, they had about ten active members, but this year, they have over twenty. ‘The point to stress upon here, is that most who participate in tournaments realize the importance of attending sessions’, clarified Abhinav. Members of DebSoc have participated in three tournaments this year, and this has improved the quality of regular debating sessions. Punit also described how the absence of the Oasis Debate contributed to a fruitful first semester, when they conducted more sessions than they had in the recent past.
On being asked whether there would be downsides to not hosting QED, Abhinav conceded that many would have a poor impression of DebSoc’s apparent inactivity, but that he was planning to host some events that include other BITSians to turn that perception around. ‘Long term, I don’t think this (one year without QED) should affect the stance of the club’, says Abhinav. ‘So, this is definitely a positive measure.’