XLRI faculty Jeetu Singh felicitates the winners of the LN Birla inter-school debate meet at Michel John auditorium in the steel city. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, June 23: The worth of a handwritten letter cannot be compared to that of an email, vouched steel city students as they debated over the topic ?the pen is mightier than the mouse?.

While those speaking for the motion highlighted how ?technology has a way of numbing the soul?, those against it pointed out that ?the mouse heralds the beginning of a new era for the human race?.

Organised by Birla High School, Calcutta, the steel city prelims of the 7th Inter-institutional LN Birla National Debate ? held early this morning at the Michael John Auditorium ? witnessed fireworks among the debating teams from 13 schools in the city.

?This annual debate is held in eight major cities across the country and from this year we have included three more cities ? Jamshedpur, Ranchi and Bhubaneswar ? in the eastern region,? said a member among the organisers.

The house was moved with the impressive arguments and counter-arguments. While one participant speaking for the motion aptly pointed out that ?the freedom fighters of the nation had let their pens rule and still today even Nasa uses a pen to sign its decrees?, another on his side commented that ?in the absence of electricity the mouse is stranded while the pen is just as efficient even under candle light?.

The panel of judges comprised Amit Chatterjee, a former senior Tata Steel official, Jitu Singh, faculty of XLRI and Ratna Choudhary, a Lions quest trainer.

?One very stark shortcoming of the students was they missed out the fine line in the motion and did not try to establish the superiority of the pen or the mouse, instead they debated on which one should exist,? said Singh.

Nitisha Besra and Soumya Shaw of Hill Top School were declared winners, with Rituparna Mukuti and Souravi Dey of Jamshedpur Public School following as runners-up.

The winning team will now head for Calcutta for the eastern regional finals to be held on July 11, the motion for which will be ?religious liberty is detrimental to national growth?.