When Rajat Sharma asked to Sam Pitroda - Do you Rahul Gandhi ji is Short Tempered ?
Sam Pitroda, adviser to the prime minister on information infrastructure
and innovation, has said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi did the
right thing in describing as "nonsense" an ordinance favouring convicted
politicians.
"I personally thought that was good. Okay, I
thought that was one way to represent," Pitroda told Rajat Sharma during
India TV's show "Aap Ki Adalat" being broadcast Saturday night.
When
Sharma said Gandhi could have used milder words, Pitroda replied: "You
don't have to be polite all the time. It's okay. It's alright for you to
become mad once in a while. You're not trying to score something."
Pitroda, reportedly close to the Gandhi family, made several remarks about Rahul Gandhi's persona.
"To
me, he is a bright young man, low-key, not flashy, not out there to
create an image. He's fairly humble, well read, compared to what people
think, he's very analytical and he does things in his own way, like lot
of our young people do. That's the way it should be", said Pitroda.
Asked
by Sharma whether Pitroda "advised" Rahul Gandhi, he said: "It's a lie.
I sometimes speak to him, but to speak and to advise somebody are two
different things."
Pitroda said he had given some tips about computer software programming language C to Gandhi several years back.
Asked
about Finance Minister P. Chidambaram saying that Gandhi was not being
given proper advice and he should raise national issues, Pitroda said:
"That's his privilege. Chidambaram should talk to him".
On
whether Gandhi should raise national issues in his speeches, Pitroda
replied: "That's his privilege. That he should decide. Why should I
decide?"
On whether Gandhi knew less about economics, Pitroda
said: "Not true. He's well read. He's studied well, but somehow people
create their own image."
Pitroda said he had gone with Gandhi on a three-day tour to Amethi and had samosas and jalebis on the roadside with him.
"Kuch
toh khana padta hai. Wahan jalebi aur samosa hai to jalebi aur samosa
khayenge (We had to eat someting. We found those and we had to eat
them)," he said.
Asked why he was refraining from giving proper
advice to Gandhi, Pitroda narrated an incident that took place in 1986
in Bhopal, when he had gone there with Jairam Ramesh.
"A young
fellow gave us a list of advice for Rajiv Gandhi and said if Rajiv
followed the advice, he would rule for the next 15 years. I asked him,
what are you doing. He replied, 'I am jobless'. So in India, people do
not know their jobs, but they know what advice to give to the PM. Most
people in India know what others should do," he said.
Pitroda
described as "lies" the media reports that said he was behind preparing
the Congress party's manifesto, strategy and vision document.
"I
must tell you, as adviser to the prime minister, when I meet the PM I
never talk about work. I was with Rajiv Gandhi for 10 years, but we
seldom talked about work.
"That's my job. I don't go and tell
Manmohan Singh what work I am doing. He knows what I'm supposed to do. I
am a qualified man. I don't need to go and give him advice. I need to
do my job."
"Yeh India mein wrong idea hai sabke paas, ki adviser
meaning you are advising. Adviser means you do your work. Our work is
very clearly spelt out, that is innovation and information
infrastructure. That's what I do. I never tell the prime minister what
he should do on innovation," he said.
Pitroda said he has never advised the Congress party, except once in 1985.
"Let
me tell you the facts. To put it on record. When Rajiv Gandhi gave his
speech in Mumbai in 1985 at the Congress centennial celebration, he came
to Delhi and asked me, 'Did you read my speech'. I said yes, what next?
What's going to happen? He said, 'What do you think?' I said, 'Wait, I
will put together a plan on party's rejuvenation'. This was 1985.
"Immediately,
I can tell about it now, I never talked about it for 25 years. I don't
discuss personal things in public. But now that you have raised, I can't
hide. See, I put together a document. Immediately he called his people -
Arun Singh, Arun Nehru, all the gang. We looked at it. That was the
document I prepared in 1985. That's it. That document is still alive."
Asked
about Rahul Gandhi mentioning his caste as carpenter thrice in a rally
in Uttar Pradesh while releasing the party vision document, Pitroda
said: "Look, Jesus Christ was also a carpenter. What difference does it
make.
"I'm proud to be the son of a carpenter. That's a fact of
life, but when I studied computer technology, my caste got wiped out. I
have a new caste. Education is always redefining yourself. But I can't
forget I am indeed the proud son of a carpenter."
Asked why Rahul
mentioned his caste, Pitroda said: "I'm proud of it. What's the
problem? Indian media always looks at things with a twist. Because they
have to sell newspapers. His message, according to me, was 'If Sam, a
son of a carpenter, can do it, you can also do it'. That was the
message, but you can twist anything."
On the CBI director's
remark that food security and other schemes were corruption-prone,
Pitroda said: "First of all, in a country of our size, there will always
be some leakage. You will have to accept that.
"If you are
worried about leakage, you will not do anything. You've got to accept
that as part of life. In India, we have 200 million hungry and we have
food surplus. If we don't feed our people well, we will not have the
workforce for the future. We need nutrition, we need to give our
children enough food. I am all for food security."
Pitroda also spoke about the National Knowledge Network that his team is working on.
"Our
job is to democratise information. We think it will change the face of
the country in 10 years. It will change the lives of all the young
people in 10 years.
"We are creating a National Knowledge Network
to connect 1,500 nodes with 50 gigabytes bandwidth to connect all our
colleges, all our universities, all our libraries, all our R&D
institutions.
"Then, we are connecting 250,000 panchayats through
optical fibre. It will take may be another two years. These two
networks will cost us around Rs.50,000 crore."
He also spoke about the UID project by Nandan Nilekani and others that would cost another Rs.50,000 crore.
Around 10,000 software experts are working in government projects now.
"No
government in the world would even think of this. When I explained this
to US President Barack Obama, he was literally surprised. We don't get
credit for it."
I personally recommend - Must Watch Sam Pitroda in Aap Ki Adalat (India TV Channel)
See also:
http://uptetpoint.wapka.me/index.xhtml
