St. Stephen's

NLU Delhi bags the winning title at St. Stephen’s MukMem 66

Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr

The Mukarji Memorial attracts people from all corners and the 66th edition had not only the finest domestic talent but also three international teams. Trinity College Dublin, Lahore School of Economics and University College Lahore added immensely to the quality of debate at MukMem. A total of 48 teams participated in the four day event held between 10th – 13th January, 2014. It ended with the final between NLU Delhi and Trinity College Dublin.

Despite the fact that MukMem has been around for 66 years, the organisers have never been afraid to experiment with the format of the tournament. This time the core decided to implement the APDA format that they tested out at MukMem ProAm. Also to ensure a level playing field the tournament was closed this year. They further put a restriction in terms of a three-time participation limit for speakers at MukMem.

The adjudication core comprised of Akshay Ragupathy, Aditya Sarin, Dhruva Desai and Badrinarayan Seetharaman. The deputy CAs for the tournament was the Stephen’s team that the debating circuit has become used to seeing- Jagat Sohail, Soutik Banerjee and Apoorv Avram.

The final was a closely contested duel between NLU Delhi and Trinity College Dublin on the motion “The house will criminalize failure to provide reasonable assistance to individuals in distress situations.” The team of Ambar Bhushan and Rahul Seth from NLU Delhi emerged as victors on a 6-1 split in the finals. The best adjudicator for the tournament was Parnil Urdhwareshe.

After the conclusion of the debate, Soutik Banerjee, the Director of MukMem 66 had the following to say:

Mukmem 66 was a dream project, and to see it materialise gave me a sense of unparalleled joy. Mukmem 66 not only gifted a new format to the Indian debating circuit, it also brought together young minds from across the country as well as from Pakistan and Ireland. In the end, it really does not matter who wins the trophy because Mukmem 66 was all about winning hearts. But take nothing away from the debating. It was intense, stimulating, provocative and decisive. MukMem 66 was the best start one could make to 2014, and if the morning shows the day then we are in for a fantastic year.

Akash is a student of Economics at SRCC who believes that Foundation Courses are not what we deserve and sure as hell are not what we need right now. Subtly inserting Dark Knight Quotes into everything he isn’t much of a writer. He doesn’t read books, probably because he spends his time swimming, debating, watching good movies and still believing in the Livestrong message. He doesn’t really care about using good language but definitely thinks people should exercise restraint when it comes to hashtags. Livestrong and Prosper!

Comments are closed.