A debate competition ‘The Great Debate’ was held at Sudmerson Hall of Cotton University on Tuesday.
The British Deputy High Commission in association with the Cotton University held the Guwahati chapter of ‘The Great Debate’.
B Borooah College, Handique Girls’ College, National Law College, IIT Guwahati, Tezpur University, Assam Veterinary College, Arya Vidyapeeth College, Assam Engineering College, Gauhati University and Cotton University are some of the educational institutions which participated in the competition.
More than 20 teams from the institutions participated in the competition. The theme of the competition was ‘Women’s Empowerment.’
The Preliminary Rounds debated the topics ‘Beauty pageants are a means of objectifying women’, ‘Equal pay for women applies across all sectors’ and ‘Women claim sexual harassment to settle scores,’ the topic for the final round was ‘Internet is a gender equalizer.’
The Great Debate is a unique opportunity to celebrate the UK and India’s shared culture of vibrant discussion and debate.
Apart from Guwahati, the Great Debate is being held in New Delhi, Kolkata, Dehradun, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bhopal and Vishakapatnam.
Bruce Bucknell, the British Deputy High Commissioner, Anurita Hazarika, Director of North East Network, and Dipak Sarma, Advocate, News Anchor and eminent debater, were the judges for the Great Debate.
Speaking on the occasion, Bucknell said, “Debate is alive and well in India. Debate is often loud, chaotic and trivial. But there is debate. And out of debate and argument comes critical thinking without which democracy cannot flourish. I was delighted to see the participants in the Great debate in Guwahati enjoy their chance to test their debating skills.’
