Rahul Gandhi’s close aide and senior Congress advisor Sam Pitroda had earlier stated in an interview to ANI that it is wrong to blame Pakistan for the 26/11 attack or the Pulwama attack, He had also questioned the Indian government over the Balakot airstrikes and had stated that India has ‘no proof’.
In an interview to Daily O recently, Paitroda has reiterated his remarks. Moreover, he has stated that he doubts the Balakot airstrikes because the New York Times said so.
Answering to a question on whether he believes in the Balakot airstrikes and 300 terrorists being killed, Pitroda replied that he does not have any proof and he had read about it in the New York Times. He added that he has been reading it for the last 50 years and when the NYT says something, right or wrong, he pays attention to it.
“What proof does #India have of #Balakot airstrike?” asks Sam Pitroda.
(He says he trusts New York Times which rubbished the Indian Air Force, and thinks lowly of Indian media.)#LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/RvydZRZBBK— Kanchan Gupta (@KanchanGupta) April 16, 2019
Pitroda then went on to assert that asking proof of the Balakot strikes do not make him anti-national and criticised PM Modi for his remarks over the Congress and opposition leaders questioning the strikes. He said that the PM’s remarks were ‘shameful and cheap’.
In the interview, Pitroda also displays his overall disdain for PM Modi, from claiming that he is trying to create an atmosphere of fear by saying we have enemies at our border to equating him to Donald Trump. He has also claimed that whatever India has achieved, it has been done under Rajiv Gandhi’s and Manmohan Singh’s rule and India’s has done almost nothing in the last 5 years.
It is notable however that Pitroda’s proclivity to dismiss the anything Indian is not new. In questioning the Balakot airstrikes he not only disregards the Indian Air Force but also willfully ignores the significant number of global powers who had acknowledged the air strikes and had supported India’s right to self-defense. Instead, he chooses to believe the New York Times, a newspaper whose own credentials has been in tatters due to its continuous peddling of fake news and leftist propaganda.
It is, however, not entirely surprising because Pitroda has himself made clear how he sees India and Indians. Recently, he had stated that India is yet to realise the potential of mobile phones and Indians with mobile phones are no more than monkeys with new toys.
