(This article first appeared in ThePrint on 20 November 2022)
Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and National Law University (NLU) won the final round of the ConQuest2022 quiz competition in the north zone at NLU, Delhi, organised by the Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR).
Over 180 students in 62 teams from various disciplines representing colleges such as Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi University’s colleges Hindu, Lady Shri Ram, Kirori Mal, Hansraj, and Faridabad’s Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru Government College, Noida’s Amity University, and Jalandhar’s Lovely Professional University contested in the preliminary round.
Six teams battled for the top two positions to proceed to the finals. These included two teams from NLU, two from DU’s Campus Law Center, one team from SRCC and one team from JNU. The competition finals will be held in Bengaluru on 3 December 2022.
Finalists of the North Regional Round of ConQuest 2022 with the organising team
President Murmu, Punjab CM, Iran protest in prelims
The preliminary rounds had 20 questions from Indian history, the Independence struggle, politics, the Indian Consitution, and current affairs.
One question featured a stand-up video from the show “Comedy Ka King Kaun”. Then, the participants were asked to guess the performer’s name. After the preliminary round, when the answers were revealed, an overwhelming majority of the audience shouted Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s name, which was the correct answer.
Curious and intelligent college students enthusiastically showcased their knowledge in questions about Jaypraksh Narayan’s weekly ‘Everyman’, camouflage ‘fake’ passport, the length of the Constitutions, the viral song ‘Baraye’ on Iranian protest, the abolition of slavery, the architecture of the high courts, Centre-State disputes, the Constituent Assembly, Pre-Independence history, modern history, trivia on President Droupadi Murmu and the Bengal famine.
The question about President Murmu was: This ethnic group’s name is said to be derived from the local word for ‘calmness’. They are the third largest scheduled tribe community in the country after Gond and Bhil. This group was in the news earlier in the year, thanks to an appointment. Identify the group. The correct answer is the Santhal tribe to which President Murmu belongs. She is the first woman tribal President of India.
A video question about Iranian protest was also asked: Shervin Hajipur’s song, “Baraye”, meaning “for”, was written by adding music to a string of tweets by people speaking out against their country’s government regarding recent events. What recent issue led to the creation of this song? Many students answered this question correctly.
In this round, the law students from DU’s CLC said that the questions based on the Constitution were easy for them because of their background. In contrast, the KMC students found the level a bit difficult. On the other hand, computer science students from LPU, Jalandhar, found these questions “informative” and said they should have been more “lenient” since they belonged to a different discipline.
A topsy-turvy final contest
In the final contest, six teams battled for the top two positions. At this stage, there were five rounds, with the first one having six questions on topics ranging from Sidhu Moosewala’s song on SYL (Satluj Yamuna Link) issue related to water rights of Punjab, Dalit women-run digital news organisation ‘Khabar Lahariya’, the beating retreat ceremony, and Basic Structure Doctrine among others.
Quizmaster Raghav Chakravarthy conducting the Final round
In the ‘List it’ round, the teams were supposed to list as many correct answers as they could from 9 options. From this list, 6 were correct, proving to be a booster as several could gather points strategically. After this round, the second NLU team was leading with 80 points, JNU and SRCC were in a tie with 75 points each, and the first NLU team stood third with 60 points.
However, during the last two buzzer rounds, JNU’s team saw a dramatic loss of scores because of negative markings. The final scoreboard saw SRCC leading (85 points), NLU teams 1 and 2 (70 points each) in a tie for the runner-up position, and JNU standing third with 55 points.
The tie-breaker question was as follows: Silent protest by school children in New Delhi in November 1973 carried a slogan which famously read ‘Eat Custard, Spare the ___’. Fill in the blank.
NLU Delhi team 1 answered the ‘Great Indian Bustard’ promptly and qualified for the finals at Bengaluru along with SRCC.
Both the teams told ThePrint they had strategised among themselves, dividing the subject areas each member had a good hold on, to contest in the competition.
ConQuest 2022 is organised by the Centre for Law and Policy Research, Bengaluru and is supported by the South Regional office of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit.
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