Sam Pitroda’s loose talk: a gift for BJP, a nightmare for Congress

 Why Congress cannot afford the foreign policy blunders of its NRI mascot

After a long silence, Sam Pitroda has once again surfaced with a remark so reckless that it has landed the Congress in another storm. Speaking to a news agency, the chief of the Indian Overseas Congress declared that India need not “fight” Pakistan or its neighbours, who according to him merely “need help and are going through difficult times.” His gratuitous advice that India should focus on “substantially improving ties” with its “small neighbours” is not just naïve, it is a dangerous distortion of India’s security realities.

Let us be clear: Pakistan is not simply a “neighbour.” It is a rogue state that has consistently harboured terrorists, sponsored cross-border violence, and endangered Indian lives. No government worth its salt can afford to treat Pakistan as just another struggling neighbour deserving charity. India’s foreign policy and security doctrines are grounded in decades of bitter experience, not in idealistic clichés tossed around by a non-resident Indian who doesn’t live with the consequences.

Pitroda’s repeated outbursts have become a liability for the Congress. He is a man with a reputation for “putting his foot in his mouth,” yet the party continues to prop him up as the head of its overseas wing. The leadership’s indulgence of Pitroda is politically suicidal. Every time he speaks, the BJP gets a free gift: ammunition to portray the Congress as soft on terrorism and blind to Pakistan’s perfidy.

The silence of Rahul Gandhi, who has backed Pitroda in the past, is equally telling. Does Rahul endorse Pitroda’s worldview? If so, he risks reviving the UPA-era image of a Congress government that responded to terror attacks with nothing more than a weak “most unfortunate.” India still remembers that period, when prime ministers looked helpless and Pakistan-based terrorists struck with impunity.

Foreign policy is not the playground of party ideologues or diaspora mascots. It is a matter of national survival, guided by professional security institutions and the elected government. Pitroda’s unsolicited sermons not only insult that seriousness, they expose Congress to ridicule at home and abroad.

The harsh truth for the Congress is this: Sam Pitroda is a great disservice to the party he claims to serve. If the Congress leadership has any political sense left, it should muzzle him. Sometimes the greatest contribution a leader can make is to say nothing at all.