BJP lies through Advertisements, People Should Understand their Agenda – Sam Petroda
Mangaluru: “In Bengaluru on April 28, we held discussions on the Manifesto. Mangaluru is a very important area for us since we have 8 candidates in DK. People, in general, should know that this election is not just about Karnataka but is very important to set the right stage for what is to come in 2019. In general, I have seen based on the social media a lot of lies being amplified and lies are propagated everywhere. Through ads that say Karnataka is number one corrupt state which does not make sense. To really not recognize what we have accomplished in the last 70 years”, said the adviser to the former PM Manmohan Singh and telecom engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker in a press meet held at the DCC office Mallikatta here on April 29.
Addressing the mediapersons Sam Pitroda said, “I want people to understand that a lot of development has happened in 70 years, offcourse, few things did not happen as we expected. I had an opportunity to work in the telecom and during Rajiv Gandhi’s time we had 2 million telephones and today we have 1 Billion. In medicine, we had produced 150 billion worth of software export. We had created massive IT industries and Bengaluru is known as the Silicon Valley of India and also known all over the world as the IT Capital. We had planted seeds to eradicate polio during Rajiv Gandhi’s time. Lots of things happened in the past and I got an opportunity to work in the weather technology mission, IT Commission, Telecom, knowledge commission, innovations, digital India etc. but people say nothing was done which is an insult to the people of India. I believe Bengaluru, in the state of Karnataka also accomplished a lot in 5 years if you see the list”.
When asked what was your role in preparing the manifesto? Sam Pitroda said, “I was not involved in preparing the manifesto. Because of the local language, I suggested Veerappa Moily to go ahead. I did share all my experience during the preparation of the Gujarat Manifesto with the Chairman of the Karnataka Manifesto committee. The Karnataka Manifesto was prepared after meeting people from every section of the society and every corner of each district. Our Manifesto was not prepared by three or four persons but was prepared after discussing with the common man, students, farmers, industrialists and labourers”.
When asked about the electrification Sam said, “Electrification is pending in many areas. We have a lot of basic problems to solve, on one hand, we have made a lot of progress and on the other hand, we have to make progress. We have created more billionaires but we really have not reduced poverty. I am ashamed of myself as an individual but those are the realities of life. We have thousands of houses without electricity. I think on one hand we made a lot of progress and on the other because of the population, it was not possible to make it. Earlier the population was very less but now the population has whooped. Longevity, female literacy has increased. We have great opportunity to expedite the process of modernization because of all the technological transit made earlier whether it is biotech, nanotech, solar power, software, cellphone, IT all of these things now give the ability to really expedite. I am very hopeful”.
When asked, the Congress did not achieve anything which the BJP has done in four years, Sam Pitroda said, “What has the BJP done? Electricity, How many villages? One Village! it’s not a big deal providing electricity to one village you don’t need the government to do that.”
When asked about People asking Rahul Gandhi’s contribution from four generations to the people of Karnataka, Sam said, “It is not the contribution of Rahul Gandhi, I would say it the Congress party’s’ contribution which is visible to you. You go through the manifesto and every step has been laid down. Don’t ask of five generations look at five years, it’s there and is documented, why worry about it”.
Congress leaders Manjunath Bhandary, Suresh Shetty, Harish Kumar and Naveen D’Souza were also present.
