A long-time associate of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the father of the Indian telecom revolution, Sam Pitroda, in a freewheeling interview with Deccan Chronicle, said that Karnataka elections are crucial to change the mindsets of the people and to prepare them for the Congress party’s bigger challenge in 2019. The party has to gear up to face the country's best-run electoral machine managed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah. Criticising the GDP-based development, he said it is a US-based model which is best suited for that country, and not India. Our country needs more of a Gandian model to usher in a new era of economic progress, he said. He batted for Congress president Rahul Gandhi, saying he is best suited to lead the country.
How important are Karnatka elections for the revival of Congress?
The Karnataka election is important, in the sense that it will set the voters’ mind towards the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. We need to set the tone for 2019, by highlighting how important are our freedoms, be it religious or culinary. For 70 years, we have celebrated our diversity, but of late, it is under a severe strain.
The Grand Old Party has now been reduced to a weak opposition. How did this happen and how do you think it can be reversed?
Frankly, it is quite complicated. Party president Rahul Gandhi is working hard to convert the Congress into a Gandhian party, as it has traditionally been a mass movement-based party. But the BJP's parent Rashtriya Swayma Sevak Sangh is not. The RSS has nurtured its cadre for the last seven-eight decades and subsequently given birth to a party. It has now become a formidable election winning machine, as described by some in the media. The Congress will have to convert itself into a cadre-based party, but unlike the RSS. It has to emulate the Gandhian model, where the primary objective of the party worker is to help the poor and needy. The Seva Dal, which is part of Congress, was formed by Mahatma Gandhi for this purpose. But today, it does not exist anywhere and it has been reduced to a namesake organisation. The party should not become an electoral machine, which wakes up only during the elections.
For the last 15 years, Mr Rahul Gandhi has been at the forefront of the party organisation, but still nothing is moving in his favour... What are the major stumbling blocks?
Mr Gandhi is working hard to take everyone along. For an outsider, the Congress looks authoritarian, but it is not. There are lots of pulls and pressure within the party. Moreover, he is a democratic person who values every opinion put forth before him. It becomes cumbersome in the process, and sometimes decisions do get delayed. But that is the way Congress works.
If the Congress has to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it has to come up with an alternative model...
Our country needs a Gandhian model of development, which is bottom-up, instead of the present GDP-based model, which is top-down. Growth focussed on GDP is best suited for the US and not India. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is increasing in our country. Development should not be assessed in terms of how many lakhs or crores of rupees you can bring in as investment at global investors' conferences. It doesn't mean you dislike big corporates. But what will transform this country is how the poor is benefitted. The growth figures in terms of GDP look good, but how does it affect the ordinary Indian?
Is there any way the IT sector, which has reached its saturation in the country, can revive itself in the near future?
Of course it can revive itself, but it will take its own time. Till now, our IT sector focussed on developing software for clients, now it needs to switch its focus to developing content for country, as we have multiple languages and diverse heritage. Also, IT needs to shift its focus from the banking sector to other sectors, say agriculture.
When the IT sector is in crisis, how can the Congress manifesto boast of improving software exports to $300 billion? Is it not a false promise?
I agree that it would be difficult to achieve this figure in the next five years. But aspirations in terms of IT exports need to be built on such assurances. Our party's manifesto is clearly divided into two parts – one, where we talk about aspirations, and the other, where we list out the offers being made to the people, in the larger context.
The manifesto also talks about doling out free smartphones to students. Do you approve of this?
(Sighs) I would surely approve of giving out smartphones to students, provided we have developed enough content for these students to become self-learners. For instance, we must have an app to teach mathematics in an interactive way. If this does not happen and the government gives out smartphones, then it will be disastrous. Already, most of the people who possess smarphones do not know how to use them. The IT revolution that I envisaged was to make our countrymen enlightened. But unfortunately, the social media which is part of the IT sector produces bundles of lies. I wish that our country will come up with something like Google, which has replaced libraries across the world, or Uber, which has disrupted the taxi business. Unfortunately, we have become pawns in the hands of fake news churners.
