NEW DELHI: Faced with BJP’s fierce assault over Sam Pitroda’s remarks suggesting that India has unnecessarily been confrontational towards China, Congress washed its hands of the latest controversial utterances of the long-time confidante of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
BJP said Pitroda’s statement that the threat from China was blown out of proportion and India’s attitude has been of confrontation from day one, was part of the agenda to harm the country.
The aggression pushed Congress on the back foot, leading to Congress’s Jairam Ramesh to write on X, “The views reportedly expressed by Sam Pitroda on China are most definitely not the views of INC”. He also said China remained the foremost security threat and economic challenge.
In an interview, Pitroda, who is head of Indian Overseas Congress, said, “What is this threat from China? I think it has been blown out of proportion at times as the US has this habit of defining an enemy. Our attitude is that of confrontation from day one and that attitude creates enemies and that attitude creates some support. To assume that China is enemy from day one is not fair; not fair to China not fair to everyone.”
“India should not look at China as an enemy country, rather it should respect its growth. Confrontational attitude creates enemies and we need to change that pattern. China is not our enemy… This attitude creates support in the country. It is time to increase our communication. It is time for us to collaborate, cooperate and co-create, and not have this command and control mindset,” said Pitroda.
The counter from BJP came fast. “All these things make clear the agenda of harming India. The ‘mohabbat ki dukan’ of Congress is for anti-national forces, be it George Soros or China,” BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said.
Pitroda’s comments are an insult to Indian military and the sacrifices made by its personnel, invoking the Galwan clash in which 20 army personnel laid down their lives while an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers died too, Trivedi said. He added that India wants good relations with every country, adding it will be, however, done by maintaining its prestige and security.
Pitroda also said, “Some nations will grow slowly; some will grow fast. The developed nations will grow faster but such countries will have an ageing population as well. On the other side, developing economies will take time to grow and will have dividend of the demography. It is always good for world leaders to meet each other and bond with each other. It is always good to have more and more foreign interactions. India is a country of 1.5 billion people”.