President Pranab Mukherjee at Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture: Top quotes

* “It is also worth remembering today that Ramnath ji was a true patriot. When he founded The Indian Express in 1936 it was in response to a need articulated by Mahatma Gandhi for a national newspaper. Better than most, he realized that democracy without a free press was like a blank piece of paper.”

* “In fact, the values espoused by Ramnath ji were relevant then, are relevant now and will remain relevant in times to come.”

President Pranab Mukherjee during the second Ramnath Goenka Lecture in New Delhi on Thursday. Express photo by Oinam Anand.

* “The sense of liberation that the Internet and social media especially, allows, has ensured that everyone has a voice and that even small voices in the remotest areas can be heard. The average citizen has been truly empowered in her ability to speak out and to find out.”

* “Aggregation and algorithms, the multiplicity of choices, have meant that while our access to the news is unfettered and vast, it has become increasingly, personalized. People now have the choice to read only what they want to and more importantly, only what they agree with. Inherent in this process of selective sourcing of news, is the danger of people turning a deaf ear to one another, and a refusal to listen to points of view that may differ from our own. This in turn diminishes the room for agreement and can increase intolerance.”

* “There should always be room for the Argumentative Indian but not for the Intolerant Indian. That would be contrary to the spirit of the Constitution of India, to the very idea of India itself.”

President Pranab Mukherjee at the second Ramnath Goenka lecture in the capital New Delhi on thursday. Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal New Delhi.

* “As its role of the primary source of information has diminished due to the variety of mediums now available, the media’s other responsibilities have increased: it must be the watchdog, the gatekeeper and the mediator between the leaders and the public.”

* “The media can help the one-way communication become a multi-faceted, multi-layered conversation between those who exercise any form of power and the average citizen.”

“To my mind, while the press will be failing in its duty if it does not pose questions to the powers that be, it will have to simultaneously judge the frivolous from the factual and publicity from reportage. Express photo by Abhinav Saha

* “Media houses need to ask themselves how they can find sustainable economic models that will allow them to resist all kinds of pressures and let them perform their role with honesty and transparency.”

* “Indian history and centuries’ old civilization is replete with examples of a willingness of the people to, as I have said, `doubt, disagree and dispute intellectually’. This is the bedrock of our nation; our Constitution is a testament to the accommodation of our differences within the framework of an overarching idea of India.”

“Media must learn the art of withstanding pulls and pressures without sacrificing its commitment to free and fair reportage and always remain on guard against conformity,” Mukherjee said. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)

* “The question that faces all of us including the media is whether we will choose to define ourselves as a nation enriched by the diversity of views or allow partisan views to dominate our national narrative?”

Technology, Mukherjee said, has opened the floodgates to the deluge of one-way unfiltered communication by the privileged to those who are less so. Express photo by Renuka Puri.

* “As we go forward as a nation we face contradictory forces: on the one hand is a country with immense potential for growth and prosperity; on the other is a growing sense of unequal distribution of resources and opportunities.”