Patna, Oct. 14: Claps reverberated across the packed auditorium at St Joseph’s Convent today when the host team won the Papiya Ghosh Memorial Debate Competition.
While St Joseph’s Convent clinched the team event on home turf, Ashwini Kumar, a student of St Michael’s High School, was declared as the best speaker in the event.
Young speakers, divided into two groups, put forth their views for and against the topic “People’s power is necessary to revitalise our insensitive leaders”.
Students from different schools in the state capital participated in the inter-school competition. Several top schools, including St Joseph’s Convent High School, St Miachel’s High School and Notre Dame Academy, were a part of the event.
Speaking against the motion, Ashwini said: “The present situation that is prevailing in the country as well as across the world clearly reveals that leaders cannot be revitalised even if power is handed over to common people. If we take the example of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, we can clearly see that a weak leader was forced to step down by the people. Just because he gave in to the demands of the people, it does not mean that the leader was revitalised.”
He then went on to speak on the recent movement led by Anna Hazare. “Even in the recent movement led by social activist Anna Hazare, we saw that despite the campaign’s success, none of our leaders were revitalised,” he added.
The best team from St Joseph’s Convent School comprised Anvi Alakshya and Nirmita Singh.
Shankar Dutt, teacher in the English department of Patna University, who was one of the judges, said the participants should have given more points to defend themselves. “However, I must say it was a good debate.”
Dutt also spoke about Papiya Ghosh, former head of history department of Patna University, on whom the debate has been named. “She was a great scholar,” he said.
History professor Maya Shankar from Patna University, who was among the judges, recalled Papiya Ghosh as a great lady and praised the organisers for naming the event after her.
