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Atal Bihari Vajpayee once said, “There are only two Prime Ministers in India- one who sits in Parliament and another who sits in Hindu College.”  The College Parliament is a student body that enriches the higher education experience for Hindu College students by exposing them to new frontiers and paradigms of education, discussion, and debate. Officially known as the Parliament of the Republic of Hindu College, it is a historic student body that aims at active student participation in running the College.

On 9th September, continuing the 83 years old legacy, the Symposium Society of Hindu College conducted the Annual Prime Ministerial debate, as a part of the ongoing campaigning for the college elections. The four candidates, namely Aman Malik, Ashish Kumar, Benna Fathima K. and Sanya Khurana,  fighting for the apex position in the college’s Parliament (the only one of its kind in the whole of the University) were given a platform to present their ideas, visions, and agendas in front of the whole college. Each candidate was given ten minutes to speak, which was followed by a Question Answer session – where one question for each candidate was entertained from the audience, and the candidates were allowed to ask one question to any other candidate. Apart from the students (known as the members of the Parliament of Hindu College), the President, the Speaker, and the Marshal of the House were also present. Moreover, this is the first time in the history of Hindu College that one can see two female Prime Ministerial Candidates standing up for the post. Also, the Hindu Progressive Front led by Benna Fathima is the new key player among all four panels.  The crowd was rapt in attention and charged with energy, the heat of the summer not deterring their support and voice for their panels. It was a highly successful event and the students left the venue with a much clearer picture of all the four candidates.

Shankar Tripathi, the President of The Symposium Society said, “We had special infrastructural bindings this year, since we didn’t have a fixed place to conduct the debate. The administration pitched in and we could conduct the debate out in the open, and I’m glad, even with all the heat and no seating arrangement for the students, there wasn’t any ruckus created. It’s safe to say that this was one of the most smoothly operated events even with all of the crowd going crazy for their candidates, and one of the biggest debates in terms of scale – all thanks to the society members and the crowd. I wish all the candidates the very best for the voting day”

Aman Malik, a Candidate for the post of Prime Minister, stated, – “My speech wasn’t a monologue, it was dialogue because the audience (my fellow students) were high spirited and exceedingly appreciative and motivated me to be where I was.”

Srijan Rai, a second-year student from B.A. (Honours) Political Science shared, “The intensity of the competition has certainly declined. Last year there was intense competition between all the five candidates, however this year the intensity of the competition was less. This is mainly due to the de politicisation brought in by several administrative measures. Secondly, this year owing to the rise in personality politics a single candidate emerged as the better one while last year even after the PM debate the people had difficulty in choosing the better candidate. Each year the PM debate evolves as the politics in Hindu evolves and the PM debate of this year was definitely one of a kind.”

Hindu is known for the platform it offers to the students to witness Indian Politics firsthand. The anticipation of ‘Who will win?’, ‘Who will lose?’, and ‘What this transpires into?’ will only settle on 12th September, the day all the students get to vote for their favoured candidates.

Feature Image Credits: Swareena for Vivre (Photography Society, Hindu College)

Bhagyashree Chatterjee

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