Pro.Verb: Day 1

The 4th edition of Pro.Verb, School of Communication’s annual national level British Parliamentary debate tournament kicked off on the 28th of September 2018. The inauguration ceremony was presided over by the chief guest Dr Poornima Baliga, the pro-vice-chancellor of MAHE. It started off with a welcome address by the conveners Bhavna Subramanian and Rrishika Kakoty, which was followed by a prayer song. The director of School of Communication Dr Padma Rani took the stage to brief the participants and audience about the history of the M.V Kamath Memorial Debate (Pro.Verb). She spoke about how the tournament came into existence, and how its first edition was convened in memory of Sir M.V Kamath.

“Instead of seeing how much pain I can dish out towards those I disagree with, or who I believe have done me wrong, I seek to follow the golden rule and use my words and behavior to create more of what the world needs—love, compassion, and connection”, said Dr Padma Rani before concluding her speech, quoting the famous writer Aspen Baker, leaving the audience with something to ponder over.

The core adjudicators travelled from all across the country to be a part of the tournament, Akash Pattanayak and Sawal Choudhary hailing from Delhi and, Sanutha Shetty and Hriday Grandhi from Bangalore. One of the core adjudicators led a short explainer session where other participants were briefed about the strategies and rules of a British Parliamentary debate followed by a mock session.

The motion for the first round was announced at noon, which went as “This house as the Congress would prioritize the policy failures of BJP as opposed to the rising intolerance in its campaign strategy.”

“Today we don’t have many rounds so we’re hoping that everything gets done on time. We have been working for the past 6 months for these 3 days to happen, so when all it comes together, we feel really happy and satisfied”, said Rishika Kakoty, one of the conveners when asked about the preparations that made Pro.Verb possible.

“It’s been really hectic putting the whole thing together, the teams are all very cooperative, and the core has been working very hard to make this happen, day one went smoothly and we are hoping rest of the days go on smoothly as well”, said Smrithi Shetty and Raveena Vellore, both volunteers of the hospitality department.

As day one comes to a steady end, there are many topics yet to be discussed and many questions to be raised. We are eagerly looking forward to two more days of intense debating.

Written by Riya Peter and Neemah for MTTN.
Images Courtesy: Aryaman Desai and Owais Saad Shuja.