The Morung Debate: Eight teams make it to quarters

The four winning teams of the last preliminary round of The Morung Debate held on August 17 at DBIDL, Dimapur. (Morung Photo)

Preliminary rounds tackle religion, technology and social media issues 

Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 17

The two-day preliminary round of The Morung Debate came to a conclusion today with four more teams advancing to the quarter finals here at DBIDL, Don Bosco Higher Secondary School Campus, River Belt Colony, Dimapur.

The teams fought neck to neck with issues concerning the Naga society and the world at large.

In every debate, Team A stood for the motion and Team B against the motion.

Groundbreakers (Team B) emerged the winner against Contrarians (Team A) in the first debate on the topic – ‘Is Technology a Blessing?’

The Groundbreakers convincingly argued that technology is controlling the humans instead of us controlling them and therefore cannot be deemed as a blessing. Human beings have lost the humane touch and that humans are being replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI), the speakers further extrapolated. 

In the second debate, The Patriots (Team B) browbeat Japfu Christian College (Team A) to advance to the quarter finals on the topic – ‘Should Social Media Be Controlled By the State?’ 

The third debate was fought between Prove Us Wrong (Team A) and Modest Rebuttals (Team B) on the topic – ‘Should Religion Mix With Politics?’ Team A emerged the clear winner.

The last debate of the preliminary round saw Free Thinkers (Team A) and Critical Thinkers (Team B) debating on the topic – ‘Is democracy the tyranny of the majority?’ Team A presenting a more logical argument advanced to the quarter finals.

Earlier in the event, Proprietor of Fingerprint, Hongba Phom encouraged the students to follow their passion saying that “life is also about risks.” Sharing his tedious but adventurous journey on becoming one of the first millennial entrepreneurs, he urged the gathering to work hard and to recognize the effort and time that successful people put in the journey.

One of the judges Nipuni Piku, Human Rights activist and member of Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), while acknowledging The Morung Express for its initiative shared his views on the need to create a culture of debate in the Naga society.

Zubeni Lotha, photographer also encouraged the organizer to continue this initiative of providing a platform for the young minds to bring out a generation of critical thinking.

“You have a long way to go,” said Father Chacko, Director, Shalom Rehabilitation Centre to the participating teams and expressed his joy on building a generation of informed minds and sound judgment.

Speaking on his overall take on the debate, Dr Asangba Tzudir, an editorial contributor to The Morung Express said it was a wonderful initiative and “it was really good to see the spirit that comes with the professional nature of debate.”

However, for real debate to happen in the right sense of the term, the topic or issues needs to be placed in context and deliver arguments based on the opponent's standpoints rather than simply delivering like an extempore speech right out of internet sources.

Having stated that, Dr Tzudir however, admitted that “we are still in the process of learning the various predicaments confronting us today and therefore this Morung Debate which has taken root today will begin to generate a productive culture of debate towards sensitizing the society.”

Meanwhile, the eight winning teams to face the quarter finals on August 24 include – Oracle against The Skeptics on the topic – ‘Prohibition Is Beneficial for Society,’ Astral against The One on the topic –  ‘Have human Rights Become Obsolete?’, The Patriots against Groundbreakers on the topic – ‘Naga Society Respects Gender Justice,’  and  Free Thinkers against Prove Us Wrong on the topic – ‘Should RIIN Be Implemented in Nagaland?’
The debate will conclude with a grand finale on September 7.