new delhi use the power of your words in these increasingly fractured fragmented times when we spend a lot of time talking at each other instead of talking to each other former president pranab mukherjee underlined the importance of debate as well as decorum as he inaugurated the fourth edition of times litfest delhi at the india habitat centre on saturdaymukherjee lit the lamp of knowledge and in his opening statement said this is a unique literary festival of ideas that addresses contemporary concerns festivals like this have been at the forefront of revitalising the interest of the young technologically driven generation towards the fine world of literature in this age of technological evolution he added everyone has a platform to give a piece of his or her mind with the safety of anonymity it gives a free pass without any accountability the casualties are decency decorum and truth we must strive to have a conversation the beauty of debate and dissent is that we can disagree without being disagreeable we can ideologically oppose and still be friends referring to literature as the lifeblood of society and a mirror of its stance and challenges its anxieties and its possibilities mukherjee invoked edward bulwerlytton to reassert the significance of the words the pen is mightier than the swordin a word of advice to audiences at times litfest delhi presented by rajnigandha he said i take from your participation here that you are here to listen to learn and to grow as wellread individuals you have the responsibility to generate a culture of debate and discussion instead of constructing walls try to build bridges in a lighter vein mukherjee said he was unsure when he first received an invitation to inaugurate the festival whether he was qualified to do so i am not a creative creature in the sense that i have authored some books but those books are not creative products of a creative mind they are narrations of my experiences in politics over the last six decades of which i was a part mostly with a very ineffective side role and occasionally at the centre of the stage but perhaps it will not be immodest if i claim that i am a leader