Feature

CU business faculty English debate team in India

S. M. Mokaddes Ahmed Dipu

A debate team from the Faculty of Business Administration of the University of Chittagong was sent to the South Asian University Debating Competition in IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Kharagpur, India. The competition took place between 9 to 11 January 2009 on IIT campus. The team consisted three debaters: A. N. Md. Bahauddin, Md. Rafiul Munir from the Department of Finance and Banking, Abu Sufian Mohammad Khaled from the Department of Marketing Studies and International Marketing. The team also consisted two adjudicators: Mohammed Saifuddin Chowdhury and S. M. Mokaddes Ahmed Dipu of the Department of Marketing Studies and International Marketing.

The debate competition was followed by an excellent workshop taken by the best debaters of IIT on 9th January, which was a perfect opportunity to sharpen the debate acumen of our debaters and the adjudicators. Then on 10th January the storm of thoughts and the war of words started. Our team got two consecutive victories, one of which was a close win and the other was comprehensive. Unfortunately, NUJS (National University of Juridical Studies) the strongest team in the competition defeated us in the last match. Since we achieved two victories, we were supposed to go for the semi-final but unfortunately due to a slight marginal difference we lagged behind. But that was not the end of the story. From the adjudicators Dipu broke the round and adjudicated in the semi-final for the first time in his very first appearance in international competition. So, overall it was really a big day for the whole debate team. The event once again proved that the Bangladeshi debaters do not lag behind anymore. Keeping pace with the world debaters they are coming out of their cocoon and contributing to their respective educational institutions and making the country proud. Hats off to the debaters for their achievement, and kudos to the respective authorities of the Chittagong University for their congenial support.

Department of Marketing, University of Chittagong.