Safa Tabassum and Mayura Varshini from the Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College for Women won the Elihu Yale Inter-Collegiate Debate 2019, organised by the Indo-American Association (IAA), Chennai, in association with the Consulate General of the United States of America, Chennai, at the Women’s Christian College on Monday.

They were presented the Elihu Yale Rolling Trophy 2019, and Safa was also recognised the Best Speaker among the participants.

The topic of the debate was “Presidential form of government for India: Will it work or fail?”, and students from nearly 18 colleges participated.

Giving away the prizes, Consul-General Robert G. Burgess, Consulate General of the United States of America for South India, spoke about how competitive debates have had a long and rich history in civil discourse.

“These debates promote a deeper understanding and greater appreciation of values, rights and responsibilities that are inherent in democratic societies,” he said.

A team from the Women’s Christian College, comprising Shilpa Srinivasan and Sharada Sharma, were the first runners-up, and Shaina Dewan and Parth Gupta from the Great Lakes Institute of Management were the second runners-up.

J. Prasad Davids, president, IAA, said the debate was a small gesture of the association to strengthen ties for the advancement of education and research, as well as to strengthen Indo-U.S. relations. Chairman of the panel of judges, M. Ganapathy, former secretary west, MEA; principal, Women’s Christian College, Lilian Jasper; and past presidents of IAA P. Murari and Meera Ramanathan were present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – October 15th, 2019