On the eve of the 7/7 anniversary the Debating Matters Competition will see the national champions of India and the UK lock horns over the motion ‘Protecting the public from terrorism should come before civil liberties’ on 5th July at London’s Royal Society of Medicine.

The Indian winners are S.M Choksey School from Pune, near Mumbai, a city tragically struck by terrorism this year. The Indian team are convinced that civil liberties must take a back seat to protecting the public – whether in London or Mumbai – from terrorism. As team member Vignesh Gundesha says: ‘Protecting innocents must always stand above personal freedom, in the UK or India.’ As well as the UK champions – who will be decided during a weekend of hard-fought debate – the Mumbai students will face tough questioning on their uncompromising stance from a panel of judges, including A.C Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, Kenan Malik, writer, lecturer and broadcaster and Anita Anand, presenter of BBC2’s The Daily Politics. 

The UK teams are eager to engage with their Indian counterparts on an issue that affects young people and their future wherever they are in the world. Cardinal Newman team member, Andrew Rhodes, from Brighton, said:

“It’s good for teams from around the world to compete in debates, since it helps to foster dialogue and prevent any one side’s views from becoming too culturally specific, with the terrorism vs civil liberties debate being a perfect example of this, since both the UK and India have been victims of serious incidents of terrorism in recent years”.

Tony Gilland, Debating Matters international coordinator, said:

“What we see in Debating Matters is a real and serious engagement by young people with the ideas and issues shaping their world and their societies. Our experience of launching Debating Matters in India this year is that there is a real urgency among young people worldwide to grasp hold of and understand complex political, social and cultural issues. These are young people who want to lead change in their societies. They do not want to duck the difficult issues. Terrorism – which has had such a devastating effect on both the cities of London and Mumbai –as an argument for giving up hard-fought for civil liberties is just such a difficult issue. It will be fascinating to hear the arguments of teenagers from India and the UK on this important, thorny issue”.

FURTHER HELP

For more information about the Debating Matters National Final, and to attend on the 4 & 5 July, contact (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)