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Bold new era of inclusive, holistic growth

Chairman of AICC Overseas Congress Department Sam Pitroda says India needs to address the problems of the poor with technology and calls for all-round reforms and a wholly new way of thinking process for the 21st century India. | Issac John

Sam Pitroda, Chairman of AICC Overseas Congress Department and a long-time associate of the Gandhi family, says that NRIs across the world should get galvanised and rally behind a time-tested party, which alone can restore the core values of inclusiveness and secularism that have been guiding India since independence, and catapult the economy to a higher level of exponential growth.

In an exhaustive interview with Khaleej Times, the Chicago-based thought leader, who has been often dubbed the "Father of the Indian telecom revolution," shares his vision of a redefined India, and also argues that the nation of 1.3 billion people needs a Gandhian-model of bottom-up development to take the country to the next trajectory of growth.

A former federal minister and close advisor to Prime Ministers, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, Pitroda, who headed India's National Knowledge Commission, is now overseeing Congress President Rahul Gandhi's highly effective overseas Diaspora interactions.

Sounding very optimistic of a bold new era of inclusive, holistic growth based on traditional values under a dynamic and re-energised Congress chief, Pitroda says India needs to address the problems of the poor with technology and calls for all-round reforms and a wholly new way of thinking process for the 21st century India.

Pitroda opens up his mind as he speaks of his dreams and fears, his concerns and expectations of the third largest Asian economy. Excerpts from an interview:

As Chairman of AICC Overseas Congress Department, what is your role in preparing the party for the upcoming general elections?

As chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, my role is to prompt NRIs to participate in the next parliamentary elections by educating them and creating awareness about the Congress ideology, Congress concern and Congress leadership. I also want NRIs to be active on social media, and make sure they go to vote on the day of voting.
Hopefully, all these will make a difference. Congress candidates are thus hopefully going to gain support from NRIs, not only in terms of media and messaging, but also in the form of votes from those who are willing to go back to their constituency and help Congress candidates. The idea is to get them engaged in the 2019 election as India is at a crucial crossroads. It is time non-resident Indians come forward to help the nation restore traditional values of truth, trust, inclusion and non-violence. If not, India's democracy and all our time-honoured institutions could be in danger.
In my current role, I want NRIs to get galvanised and rally behind a time-tested party, which can only restore the democratic values that have been guiding the nation since independence.

Considering the favourable outcome of the recent elections in five states, how do you assess the chances of a Congress-led front recapturing power in Lok Sabha polls? What are the challenges and opportunities for your party?

I believe the Congress Party has a significant opportunity to send out its real message to the people during the upcoming elections. And there are two sets of messages according to me. One set is more about the idea of India. To me, that is very important to articulate for people to understand. say, do you want our institutions to function or you want somebody to undermine our institutions? Do you want real democracy, do you want freedom of choice, freedom of voice, freedom of religion?
If you believe in these things, then you have to cast your vote accordingly.  If these things do not matter to you, then you need to go to the next level, like what is happening to the economy - in sectors like jobs, farming, education, etc. Then you really need to understand the truth as opposed to lies. There are a lot of lies being propagated. And you know people say whatever they want to say without being responsible for what they say. And I think, to me, it has got out of hand.  I would never say anything about anybody unless and until I am very sure. But today, when you watch TV, people attack each other without understanding, without any evidence in front of them. A typical case is when someone argues that Congress has done nothing in 70 years. How can you say that? That is an insult to the people of India. Over those 70 years were all Indians sleeping. Look at all those institutions. Look at our democratic tradition, look at the education sector, the IIMs, the IITs, our research houses, laboratories - look at all the brilliant people that contributed to India's progress and development.
In fact, we have too much conversation in India on petty issues as we misguide our young. We are not telling them the facts. Those leaders who say senseless things are not qualified to guide our young.
Look at our achievements since independence. All those major projects and path-breaking programmes including the Green Revolution, White Revolution, telecoms revolution and liberalisation have helped our country emerge self-sufficient and powerful. The fact is that we are no longer hungry as we can feed more than 1.2 billion people.  Yes, the Congress-led front stands a tremendous chance to sweep the elections. The challenge is to counter the lies and convince voters about the need for an inevitable change for a better India.

As a close confidante and trusted adviser to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, what are your modest expectations from him as a future prime minister? Do you advocate a complete overhaul of the economic and social policies of the Modi government?

I am not a close confidante, nor a trusted advisor. I am just a well-wisher, a family friend and chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress. I have worked with him, I talk to him regularly, we have good personal chemistry, and I believe he is a very good human being. I know him well, he is highly educated, he thinks a lot, he is well read, his heart is in the right place. He is very different from what the media has projected him to be. You know media has just jumped on him left and right. You know, for example, there is one channel, which constantly says: Will Rahul Gandhi answer this? Will Rahul Gandhi answer that? You know this has been going on for the past two years. I think media has been hijacked in defining who the real Rahul Gandhi is.  I think he will be a good prime minister. He is young, he is energetic, and his heart is in the right place, and above all, he has a vision for India. He believes in Gandhian values.
As a truly democratic person, he values every opinion put forth before him. He is equally passionate about India and his party and is working hard to take everyone along.  
I do advocate substantial changes during his tenure if he can manage to become prime minister. I think what would aim for is to go for bottom-up development, not a top-down approach that is being followed by the current government that benefits just a few.  We do need to address the problems of the poor with technology. We should have administrative, judiciary, political, economic, and labour reforms. We need a full new way of thinking. The present mindset is of the 19th century. I said many times, we have the 19th-century mindset, 20th-century processes and 21st-century need.
A lot of our leaders don't know what they are talking about. There is no understanding of technology, and they just use passwords. I think a lot more is required to maintain expertise in the system to enable us to do things that need to be done. Take for example space, atomic energy, milk revolution, telecoms revolution and green revolution. All those required political will and at the same time proven expertise. So I do think a lot of changes will happen in the future on our economic and social policies, but it is going to be revolutionary. The first thing we need to do is really to bring our institutions to a level where we were nearly five years ago. And there was autonomy, freedom, flexibility, all that is now hijacked.  Recently, I saw the vice-chancellor of a university in UP, I don't know which one, I don't know who, I saw in the media. That vice-chancellor was advocating violence. How can you do that, how can he be the vice-chancellor? So lots of such critical jobs have been hijacked to suit the interests of a political party. We will have to put competent people in places, we will have to put domain expert in charge, we will certainly have to give them freedom and autonomy to operate. We have to respect institutions. I think today Indian institutions are not at that level.  

Do you believe Rahul Gandhi has the charisma and popular appeal of his illustrious family predecessors to pull off a victory against one of the most formidable political opponents in the coming polls?

No one person can be held responsible for victory in national polls. Our system is not a presidential system. Ours is a parliamentary system. People select their leaders. Of course, you need a leader. But I think MPs need to be selected based on their capability, and not based on the leader you have.  In a democracy, your moral responsibility is to make sure that the person you are voting for is honest and capable. You are voting for a parliamentary election. Rahul Gandhi, like his predecessors, does have that charisma, popularity and ability to lead the party to victory.

You have been quoted as championing for a Gandhian model 'bottom-up development' for India instead of the present GDP-based model. Can you explain how this will be relevant in this era of globalisation and privatisation?

Yes, I firmly believe in a Gandhian model of bottom-up development. I believe GDP or GNP don't really make sense any more. We should respect globalisation and privatisation. I am all for it. But I think localisation is equally important because localisation in terms of local parts, food, soil, trees, language and customs. You know, there is a local genetic pool of everything. And you can't just ignore that. So, you need bottom-up development. It is to decide what is to be localised, what is to be globalised, what is to be privatised, what is to be supported by the government, and you need to really focus more on safety, security, peace, education, family, happiness and not just GDP. GDP could misguide you. Take for example Gujarat, where two or three big businesses define the state's GDP. That doesn't mean everybody benefits from it. So, you will have to be really careful as to how you create the developmental model. I also believe that we need all the centralisation in the government. Ideally, if we had an option, we really should have district level development. We need development to be pushed down at every district. Every district should be responsible for their water, education, health and road. Why should Delhi worry about all of these? It is time for local people to take responsibility for their sanctity.
There's a lot of talent in every district. Every district is like a country - two million people per district. These two million people should worry about their university, and their teachers, their roads, their water tanks. They should put their hands and just go get it done. Why should somebody else worry about it? Today the mentality is "give me something" as everybody wants something. Everybody has to give something, then things happen.  

What are the top priorities of the Congress-led front's poll agenda?

I think the top priority is to 1) select the right candidate, 2) create the right position, and 3) get a good manifesto, which articulates what people need and not what the party needs. So we have started preparing the manifesto by going out and talking to a large number of people. Thus, it becomes a people's manifesto. People want jobs, people want education and health. You have to make sure those are affordable and sustainable initiatives. People want opportunities, farmers want to make sure their income will increase.
Development should not be assessed in terms of the money you can bring to the country as an investment. It doesn't mean you should be against corporates. What will transform India of 1.3 billion people is how the poor are benefitted. The growth figures in terms of GDP may look impressive, but tell me how does it affect a common man?

You have been credited for the telecom revolution in India during Rajiv Gandhi's rule. What will be your next such epoch-making mission if UPA comes to power?

The telecom revolution happened because Rajiv Gandhi had the political will and he has the domain expertise and also he has a young cadre. We have a technology vision in Rajiv Gandhi's time. We have technology vision on drinking water and immunisation.  Don't forget Polio eradication. Polio got eradicated after 25 years because in Rajiv Gandhi's time, we had a technology mission on immunisation and we decided to make polio vaccine in India. And then people turned around and said nothing was done. They are ignorant.
I think, like the telecom revolution, if I had an option to articulate, I would say we need a second revolution not just in agriculture but also in the food chain. Agriculture is a small piece of the food chain. I am talking about the entire food chain - nutrition, preserving food, distributing food, preparing food, and  all of that. Agriculture is one piece of the puzzle. So we need new technology, new initiatives to improve our entire food chain from all the way to our kitchen and provide a dining area. We have hugely to improve nutrition in India. Nutrition is very poor in many states. If you visit Gujarat, you will see all the boys and girls are shorter and thinner as they are malnourished.
I would say the next big mission should be in three areas: food chain, environment, and construction. To me, these three are very important things. Environment -  there will be lesser pollution, more trees, better water, clean water, garbage disposal, toilets, and then, food chain and shelter.
We also need good housing in India. That will create more jobs. We need better housing. We need to upgrade people's houses also. Just because you live in a small little place doesn't mean you should live there your whole life. Expect to live as your aspirations. A better place, a cleaner place and better furniture are what I look for.

What in your opinion are the most urgent steps a new government that might replace Modi should take up to restore the faith of the minorities in the country's secular democratic principles?

I think we have to go on talking about the idea of India. Democracy, freedom, inclusion and diversity are all important aspects. First of all, I don't want to ask anybody in India what's your religion. I don't care, I don't ask anybody what is your past, I love you for who you are. I like the diversity we have.  I like that you are in a different religion and eat different food and different spices and have a different environment. I like different architecture. I like the diversity that is the beauty of India. We must celebrate diversity. So, when I look at today and I am not blaming any individual in particular.  I see the truth has been hijacked by lie. Democracy has been hijacked by dictatorship in many places. Institutions are captured and undermined.
Freedom is not quite there. People are afraid to speak against the government. You write something, you get a call.  That is not the India we all aspire.
I don't want to look at my past, I want to look at the future. I want to derive my strengths from the past, but I don't want to talk about my past all the time. Past is over. I want to build my future. I have got a vision of tomorrow and not worship my God of yesterday all the time.

You have been calling for a new round of conversation to create a new world order. What is your vision of a new world order and how do you want India to be redesigned as per your upcoming book 'Redesign the World' - A global call to action'?

I have been working on this book for quite some time. I am convinced that the design of the world that we had from the 1940s, which was responsible for the creation of the UN, the World Bank, Nato, the IMF, the WTO, GDP, per capita income and balance of payment, etc. That design was also based on military power.  I believe in the need for a new design for the world and I spend a lot of time on it and do not have all the answers. I have some ideas, and I want to document and begin a new conversation. In the information age, you need a new design. You cannot have design, which is 75-year old for the 21st century. That design just doesn't work. It's over. It doesn't work. But no one is talking about it.
A new design has to take into consideration internet, information technology, big data, analytics, globalisation, privatisation, liberalisation, communities, global governance,  global financial system, inclusion, diversity -  all that are part of the new world. And today, the conversation is more about money, military and markets and that's about people and the planet. The new design will have to focus on people and the planet.

Why do you think that under Rahul Gandhi's leadership Congress party would be able to reinvent itself and take a bold new course to regain the party's glory and usher India to a transparent, corruption-free and all-inclusive growth era?

Because they are young. I think young leaders like Rahul and his colleagues are what India needs today. India doesn't need people like me, who are old. We will have ideas. We will work with young people, we will help them, we will support them, but we need that young energy. We need them to create their world, we need them to articulate their needs.  They have to build the world for tomorrow. I would like the young generation in their 40s and 50s to take over.    

What are your ideas about job creation, economic growth and holistic development?

Let's worry about building infrastructure for people rather than stirring controversies on places of worships. We need to worry about building schools, laboratories, hospitals, not places of worship. You have to have more educational institutions. Places of worship should also be teaching people and feeding people.
For example, to me, nation-building today requires first, to protect and promote our values, which relate to freedom, democracy, inclusion, diversity, and security.
We have to explain to people why these things are very important, then we need to build trust and confidence in our institution - judiciary, police, force, schools and hospitals - we have got government.  If we can't build trust and confidence in our institutions, we can't go forward. Then we need to institute major reforms, - political reforms, judiciary reforms, financial reforms, labour reforms and all that. Then we need to really decentralise decision making so that every district is independent. We need to invest heavily in building infrastructure, we need to invest in education, health, modernise agriculture, we need really to focus on urbanisation. We need the Indian model of urbanisation and not imported model.
We need to create more employment in the unorganised sectors. There is so much talent in India, but they are unorganised. We need to really work on that unorganised sector, we need to focus on science and technology. That is the future. Then we need to really use information and technology effectively to connect India.  India today is connected with 1.3 billion folks, but India is not connected in minds.
Northeast Indians, South Indians, North Indians, everybody should be connecting with each other, everybody should be talking to each other, everybody should respect each other, that's the connectivity we need, irrespective of religion, race, language and food. We need to be connected for stronger integration of cultures. The beauty of connectivity is then one can reach out to people who are different. We need to really touch the hearts of people, we need to connect with them with our hearts and that is the beauty of India.

- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com