Satyan Gangaram Pitroda, better known as Sam Pitroda , is a key aide to Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Last week, Pitroda sparked a controversy when he questioned the death toll in the February 26 Indian Air Force strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist camp in Pakistan’s Balakot, eliciting a scathing response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His remarks had been twisted out of context, Pitroda, 77, said in an interview with Aurangzeb Naqshbandi. Edited excerpts:

Q. Do you think the minimum income guarantee scheme will be a game-changer in the polls?

A. One fundamental difference I find in our approach to that of the BJP’s is that ours is a bottom-up while they are looking for a top-down approach. Take for example Gujarat; they have been talking of the Gujarat model, which is a top-down approach, where you have ports, refineries and the Nano plant and increased disparity, as opposed to saying what is happening to farmers and education and nutrition at the bottom, to minimise the disparity. Knowing this, Rahul Gandhi has been very concerned about the idea of minimum income guarantee. I think it will affect a large number of people. Now, whether it will impact in terms of votes is a different issue. But that’s not the purpose.

Q. How did you arrive at the figure of Rs 12,000 per month?

A. Well, a lot of economists have looked at it. It could have been some other figure but looking at the resources required and the minimum sustenance required in India today, it was fixed at Rs 12,000. Now, that Rs 12,000 may have a different meaning in Bihar and an entirely different [one] in Karnataka. So, all of that will have to be fine-tuned as we go along.

Q. How is the scheme going to be funded?

A. We believe there are enough resources available in the system to at least take care of this. It is like NREGA [National Rural Employment Guarantee Act]. When we started NREGA in Dr Manmohan Singh’s time, I remember there was lot of discussion as to whether it is the right thing to do, it is a handout and economists were not very keen. They thought such things don’t help GDP/GNP. But at the end , I thought NREGA was a big, big push to poor people in improving their income. This is of a similar nature. Besides, more work will be required. It is not something that you just do it without a lot of consultations and discussions. For example, I had some conversations with Raghuram Rajan at a personal level on this issue. He told me how it could be done and also suggested that we should have public conversation on it and that is what is happening.

Q. What are the key poll issues?

A. If someone was to ask me today, what is the big challenge in India, I would say unemployment. And Rahul Gandhi is aware of it. In Rajiv Gandhi’s time, we were committed to creating employment for younger generation in IT [information technology] and telecom. Then no one was ready to believe us and people used to ridicule us. It is because of those seeds we planted that we came from two million telephones to 1.2 billion phones and a $150 billion worth software industry but it took 25 years. When someone today says Congress did nothing in 70 years, they think they were born with mobile phones. It didn’t come easily.

Q. Why hasn’t the Congress then been able to communicate its achievements?

A. Media has been a little biased. In Congress, when our people speak up, they are afraid. That’s also a problem. So, as a result, we wind up having only Rahul Gandhi speak up and not enough people supporting him. We need people to speak up after him so that there will be harmony in our message.

Q. So, are you getting trapped in the narrative set by your rivals?

A. This is all bogus. I always ask people -- did Mahatma Gandhi ever hire a PR agency? No, because his message was his life. You have to hire a certain agency when you have to lie or hide something. That is what these people [BJP] do. They try to massage and package their lies. I said something about Pulwama and the Prime Minister had to tweet and the BJP chief had to address a press conference. Why? What did I say? That is completely out of my mind unless I am missing something. It was a total drama. Nothing in that 40-minute interview talks about not respecting our soldiers, our officers, army and our government -- past and present. But I am supposed to express my views and if I don’t do that I am not doing my job. You may not agree with my view. The India of today is not the India of my dream. India of tomorrow is what we want to create . If you want an India that will have freedom to speak, full of opportunities and love for everybody then vote for us.

Q. What did you actually say on Pulwama and Balakot?

A. Nothing. It is a total lie and my remarks were twisted. If I had said anything I would have immediately apologised. I said that I was trained and born and raised as a Gujarati in Gandhian values such as truth, love and non-violence. To me, restraint requires much inner strength than attacking somebody. So, there was a question on Mumbai terror attack that why didn’t the Manmohan Singh government attack Pakistan. I said look that was that government’s decision, that is OK and Balakot was this government’s decision, that’s also OK. Once a government takes a decision, I am with it. As an individual and not as a party person, I said violence does not result in a fair game. The PM of a country didn’t have to respond. He knows me and my wife very well and could have picked up the phone and called me.

First Published: Mar 27, 2019 08:25 IST