Indian political narrative should change: Sam Pitroda

Eminent technocrat and Senior Congress leader Sam Pitroda on Sunday observed that the current Indian political narrative needed a change.

He was speaking at meet the press organised by Dakshina Kannada district Congress party unit.

"Religion has pervaded politics and there was a need to replace the religion with development in politics," he said.

"It hurts to see the current Indian political scenario which is directionless. Prominent leaders in the politics speak only about the religion, not development. Discussion on development should be the primary component of the Indian politics,"Pitroda, a close friend of Gandhi family said.

"The May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections are very important considering India's future as it will have a definite impact on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," he noted.

He termed social media as an ocean of lies and said: "A team has been constituted to target rivals in politics by spreading lies. It is an insult to the people to term that there was no development in India in the last 70 years. It may be true that the country failed to reach targets in a few sectors, but whatever India is at present is because of the development in the last 70 years."

"The number of telephone connections was just 20 lakh when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister. It has gone up to 200 crore now. The seed for complete eradication of polio was sown during Rajiv Gandhi's regime? Who is responsible for all this? Due to Rajiv Gandhi's initiatives, India is the global leader in information technology," the technocrat noted.

He said that development of infrastructure took a back seat as the priority was to uplift poor people after the Independence.

"The BJP's act of patting its own back just by ensuring power supply to one village of Tripura can't be justified," he said.

"The Congress party has begun the tradition of finalising poll manifesto based on interactions with the public. The same will continue for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," he said.

He said that he wanted India where religious harmony thrived.

AICC secretary in-charge for Karnataka Madhu Goud Yaskhi, former Maharastra minister Suresh Shetty and local leaders were present.