Second day of The Liberty Debates Championship

The round 3 and 4 of The Liberty Debates Championship ‘Mahasangram 2016’ took place on 9th April, 2016 at King’s College, Babarmahal. The teams participated and competed in either English or Nepali categories.

The debates of the championship were held in parallel sessions for English and Nepali categories. The motion of Round 3 was ‘This house would abolish the policy of permanent tenure for civil servants and introduce ‘hire and fire’ policy in Nepal’ and Round 4 saw participants debating on the motion that ‘This house regrets the trend of selfies’.

A total of 8 parallel sessions were conducted in both rounds where debaters put forward their arguments for and against the motion. The adjudicators and panelist marked the team performance with fair judgement.

Discussion on the first motion revolved around the productivity of a civil servant where one side argued that the incentives made individuals productive, thus job security as a major incentive is must for civil servants. The opposition believed in pressure and deadline to make an individual more productive. They argued for policies centered on the idea of regular assessment of work of civil servants and work ethics. Some references to civil service acts were also made in the debates.

The proposition explained how a stagnant system is formed by the permanent tenure policy and creativity is promoted by hire and fire system while opposition felt that the transfer and promotion system broke such monopoly and experience mattered more in civil service as no compromise could be done in civil service. The concern of one side also extended to the possible favoritism and nepotism, resulting in unjust system, in the prevalence of hire and fire policy. The other side seemed equally concerned about the need for taking away the permanent tenure of highly unproductive civil servants who only acted as leech in the system. Economic aspects of both the policies were also highlighted. The efficiency of the governance was another heated up issue.

On the second motion, the ideas of individualism and collectivism were heavily engaged upon in this debate. The government side put forth arguments relating how the present trend of taking selfies incessantly lead to narcissistic behavior and self- obsession which fueled up the individualistic form is living in the society that remains against the foundations of human society and were able to portray the possible harms/ effects this increase in individualism lead to.

Moreover, the misrepresentation of beauty and accidents that selfies lead to made the trend of taking selfies regrettable to the proposition. A difference in the society created by the quality is selfies individuals took was one of the major concerns for them.

The other side, in the other hand, found the memories that selfies helped to keep more valuable and highlighted how selfies aren’t only about clicking one but promotes the unity and beings people together in the society. Moreover, the idea of selfies being a form of security was discussed upon with reference to the selfies taken before hitchhiking. Opposition argued how selfies act as a form of expression and is particularly import for people who can’t express themselves in other forms. The smartphones sale increment due to front camera has provided benefit to economy. They also believed that selfies have led to a whole new Era of photography, enabling people to be more creative and unlocking some job opportunities at the same time.

Round 5 and 6 of the debate shall continue this Saturday, April 16 at King’s College, Babarmahal beginning 11.30 a.m.

The motion for Round 5 is:  This House regrets the trend of gender specific professions./ यस सदन पेसामा लैंगिक बिशिस्टताको बढ्दो प्रबृत्तिलाई लिएर पस्चाताप मान्दछ ।

Stay tuned for updates!