NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi is a strategist more so than his father Rajiv was, said Sam Pitroda as he blamed the media for a “well-orchestrated” campaign against the leader of opposition to malign his image.
In an interview to PTI, the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress said, “Rahul is a strategist more so than Rajiv was. They are products of different times, different tools, different experiences.”
“Poor Rahul has gone through two big shocks in life, (death of) his grandmother and his father. So they have had different paths to travel,” he added.
Pitroda, who has been known for his controversial remarks, compared Rahul and Rajiv’s intellect saying, “I had an opportunity to see many prime ministers from very close quarters but the difference between Rahul and Rajiv maybe is that Rahul is much more intellectual, thinker, Rajiv was a little more doer.”
Referring to the ‘pappu’ image propagated in the political arena, Pitroda said, “First of all the image created in the media was based on a well-orchestrated campaign against an individual where millions and millions of dollars were spent on maligning this young man and when he is highly educated, people said he never went to college.”
Without taking any names, Pitroda took a dig at the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll promises.
“You cannot lie all the time to all the people. People are now beginning to see that it was said ‘we will create 20 million jobs’, but they haven’t done that, it was said black money will be brought back, it hasn’t happened,” he said.
“Criticising the government is not criticising India. It is ok to criticise the government by an opposition leader, That is his job in fact, so why complain. I think this whole business of criticising abroad is bogus,” he added.
Sam Pitroda was reinstated in June this year as the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress after he quit the post in the middle of Lok Sabha elections over a ‘racial’ comment.
