We all can think; however, a very small portion of our brain can actually win a battle in terms of organising multiple social thoughts, norms or issues through appropriate logic and presentation. We refer to all the young enthusiastic debaters, who deliberately devoted their time and mind along with their mountain-high education and work pressure. BUET Debating Club is a true example of this. Besides performing and training, these BUETians' are on board to unify and provide a big platform for upcoming Bangladeshi debaters. T-Junction had a conversation on a sunny afternoon with a bunch of students from BUET Debating Club, to discuss more on contemporary state of debate in Bangladesh.
Lovers of debate must've been passing a thrilling time as BUET Debating Club’s 7th BUET DC National Debate Championship is going to be ending today. Among three segments, the Inter-School Bangla Debate Championship and Inter-School English Debate Championship already got its champions few days back. The names of winners are being kept under shield till this evening. Also, Inter-Club Bangla Debate Championship's finale is going to be held today.
From its origin, the club is organising these tournaments on a continuous basis as to encourage and unite the debaters through this platform, with aim to prepare them for a broader arena. Mehdi Hasan, organising secretary, said, “Unless thay are participating in different competitions, it’s beyond impossible for the debaters to understand where they should excel, where they should focus, and how to break the existing stigma about debates in our country.”
Alike previous year, this year National Debate Championship has a theme and this time it is mostly influenced by the contemporary unstable situation called, “Bichurno Shomoy, Oparajito Jukti.” All of the organisers are quiet happy about the performance of this season. Mehdi said, “At present, participation in debate is increasing. Whereas, a few years back the participation was limited among a few schools but now the scenario has changed. Surprisingly, we had to increase the participant number from 32 teams to 48 for Inter-Club Bangla Debate Championship as more people registered.”
Mehdi also mentioned about the rising number of English language oriented debaters. At this point Raihan Mahmood, president, said with emphatic dramatics, “Once upon a time there were a culture that Bengali medium schools would debate in Bangla on the other hand English medium schools students would debate in English. However, students from Bangla medium are now participating in English debates, and even exceeding in it.”
“The fact is, it’s like a chain process when one gets on board others start to follow them,” added Mehdi.
According to the club members, current debaters does have problems in debating styles and manners, which is a positive side. Even with the Internet available, the school level students suffer in factual areas, which are more fundamental. Raihan recommended, “There is no other alternatives apart from reading newspapers, attending workshops to load oneself with viable information to this sector.”
Apart from growing inside the country, the debating community of Bangladesh is improving internationally as well. Many consider that Aaqib and Ratib of BRAC University, who had successfully achieved recognition through the world’s biggest debate tournament, World Debate Championship. It is a turning point that has brought a huge impact on the importance placed on the subject in universities and schools.
Many students from BUET, so far, has participated in international debating competitions such as Asian British Parliamentary (ABP), World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) etc. Every year, at least one international competition, if not more, are attended by them. Mehdi Hasan, Organising Secretary, and Imran Raja, Joint Secretary of BUET Debating Club, as a group, made their positions among the top twenty in Asian British Parliamentary.