The Workshop for Asian Parliamentary Debating was organised on 21st November. The event commenced with an address by Fr. Praveen Hrudayaraj SJ, Director, SJCL who spoke about the importance of Parliamentary Debating in the field of Law and encouraging the students to enter a healthy number of debates to increase our knowledge and help our clients in defending them which would add some weight to our profiles, calling it essential to possess these skills. It continued with an address from the Principal Dr. Pratima Prabhakar who spoke about the history of the Debating Society in St. Joseph’s College of Law and declaring the Debating Committee open for the Academic year 2020-21.

Mr. Rahul Raman Chevening Scholar, School of oriental and African Studies, addressed students on the need for Debating, how it is transformative and thought provoking, why it is so important as a student of Law and how it helped him through his time in college. He then moved on to the ways of structuring a debate, ways to present one’s arguments and how to deliver a perfect and structured argument. He also spoke about how the Debating habit helped him after college because it helped him cultivate the habit of critical thinking and logic. He said that Debating made him sharper and also made him understand the world of arguing in a much better sense easing down his worries as an associate. He emphasized that debating provides tools for critical thinking which is essential in a Democracy.

The debate committee organised a model debate for students on the topic of “Regretting the Corporate Appropriation of Feminism.” It showed us what a debate is, how a debate takes place, the speakers and how they structured their arguments.