Debate Society

Director: Dr. Layla Mascarenhas

Associate Director: Ms. Bhakti Naik

Debate Society is the latest addition to the diversity of the college. It was started in the year 2014 as a students’ initiative. The idea of the society was born out of inkling to make the college ‘a free market for ideas’

Debate is a part of life of a legal professional. The Society expects the law students to be bold enough to participate and informed enough to air their views on the on-going issues at local as well as National level. This also helps in harnessing the soft skills of public speaking, and more importantly to learn the art of reflective thinking to come up with new ideas and counter points rather than relying on memory as the only power of the mind.

The vision of the Society is to make V.M. Salgaocar College of Law a place where debate is not a competition but a way of life; where debate is fun; where disproving of an idea, makes the disproved more happy than dis-prover. This kind of initiative is necessary particularly when intolerance to ideas is growing in the political field. The society endeavours to achieve tolerance among the students, for the contrary view, where every student strongly believes that the conflict of view and conflict of ideas are the source of growth and development.

In furtherance of the above objective, the society has initiated an activity called ‘Informal Debate’, where the debate is conducted in an informal manner at an informal venue. However, the topics chosen are always crucial. These topics are related to the life of the students; on and off-campus.

In addition to the informal debate, the society conducts ‘Inter-class Group Discussion.’ This has received a very positive response from the students, where different views are expressed fearlessly. This discussion helps the students to frame unbiased views on issues of public interest. The Society will not rest till every student implements Voltaires slogan in his life in its true spirit,

“I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”