Eloquent echoes

This is the season of debates, ideas and expressions at VoW. After the very successful pan India school debate on the contest, collaboration, or both, between the UN and G20, college and university students will spar on whether the nation-state is the best guarantor of human rights, whether human rights can be extended to perpetrators of violence and gender empowerment as a condition precedent for any meaningful rollout of human rights. The subject for the final debate will be announced only two days before the finals so that there is an element of surprise — both for the finalists, as well as for the jury members and the observers to the debate!

All this has been made possible with the support of the National Human Rights Commission of India and the organisational back up of Uttarakhand’s leading public-funded Doon University. The debate is named after the pioneer woman of the Chipko movement Gaura Devi.

Why Gaura Devi?

True, Gaura Devi was not a debater, but an activist who led from the front, whose spontaneous act of hugging the trees that had been earmarked for felling by the Symonds company led to the world-famous Chipko movement. Together with her companions, she defied the diktat of the forest department and the contractors and clung to the trees, both literally and metaphorically, thereby changing the discourse of the political economy of the environment. It changed forever the way both the state and the civil society looked at the trees and the environment. Are trees simply a utilitarian piece of wood, or part of the larger environment? Do they have a ‘standing’ in the legal and the ecological sense? Gaura Devi is thus an inspirational figure not just for students of Doon and of Uttarakhand, but of all ecologists everywhere. The Vatsalya debating club of Doon University acknowledges her as a significant role model: one who did not let her personal adversity come in the way of her commitment to the larger cause.

The four-square debate: four rounds, four subjects, four dates, four prizes

Let me now share a few words about the structure of this four-round debate with four subjects on four dates: the first three being online, and the finals as a physical event at the Doon University. The preliminary round was held on November 17, the quarterfinals on November 27. The semifinals are on December 4, and the finals on December 10.

The first preliminary round was in the nature of an elocution contest for three minutes, and the top fifty participants qualified for the online quarter final debate — twenty-five each in Hindi and English — with a rebuttal round to make it livelier and more exciting. The Rebuttal round ensures that the participants go beyond surface reading of the recent articles and columns on the subject. The third step is even more interesting, called the ‘turncoat round’; it has the same participant arguing for and against, which brings out the very best in the arguments. It is interesting to see how the same facts are placed in different contexts and how the factual and the counterfactual are juxtaposed against each other. Eight finalists — four each in Hindi and English — will emerge from this round who will be invited to Doon University, and of these eight, four will get the top prize of Rs 31,000 and Rs 21,000 for the best speaker and runner up in both Hindi and English.

As this column goes to print, the preliminary and the quarterfinals have been conducted successfully, and the short list of eight participants in English, and nine in Hindi (because of a tie) will now face each other in the semifinals on December 4.

Finals on December 10: the Human Rights Day

The final debate will take place on the Human Rights Day, which falls on December 10, to mark the adoption of the UNHDR seventy-five years ago at the 183rd meeting of the UNGA held in Paris. The UN website tells us that the UNHDR is one of the most widely translated documents – it is available in over 500 languages. As a foundational text in the history of human and civil rights, it is considered a milestone document for its universalist language which makes no reference to any particular political system, religion, geography or demography. India’s unique contribution to the UNHDR was that it suggested the use of ‘human’ instead of ‘man’ in the draft Declaration of Rights of Man. It may also be mentioned that in 1948, the UN had 58 members as against 193 today, and of them, forty-eight voted in favour, with eight abstentions, most of whom were aligned to the Soviet Union while Honduras and Yemen were not present at the time of the vote. However, as of today, even the countries which had their initial reservations have signed the Declaration.

The NHRC: a beacon of hope for every human

Three decades ago, in 1993, the Government of India established the NHRC on 12 October to create the much-needed institutional framework for promotion and protection of human rights of all citizens. It was becoming increasingly clear that the Ministries of Home Affairs and Social welfare were inundated with so much work that there was little focus on this aspect. There were many issues left unaddressed, as for example the issue of human rights of transgenders. NHRC has become one of the first ‘national commissions’ to recognise that transgenders cannot be excluded from the gamut of human rights, and has expressed its concern about the discrimination faced by transgenders even after the passage of The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. The Commission not only receives complaints about violations of human rights, but also takes suo moto cognizance, thereby alerting the executive machinery of the state towards its bounden duty to protect the human rights of every human being who resides within the territory of this nation.

In fine, Doon University and VoW are delighted to host the debate on human rights for it has opened hitherto unexplored vistas for the students and faculty members, besides creating an awareness about this subject among the citizens of tomorrow.

The writer, a former Director of LBS National Academy of Administration, is currently a historian, policy analyst and columnist, and serves as the Festival Director of Valley of Words — a festival of arts and literature.