Sam Pitroda: Media spreading lies on Congress and Cambridge Analytica

I have been silently watching lies being spread on Indian media, at a time to sensationalise news and misguide people on a variety of issues. Some of these lies have resulted in unnecessary court cases and damaged our relationships and our thriving democracy.

I feel our media may be crossing limits to spread lies like wildfire on television and social media with shouting matches and useless debates. The recent lie is about Congress party using Cambridge Analytica and associated misuse of data and leaks.

This news is utterly rubbish, it is simply a big lie and ought to stop with an apology. I know for sure, that Congress party has never used services of Cambridge Analytica at the center and/or state level in the past.

All those in the media who say that Congress has used and paid Cambridge Analytica ought to own up to spreading lies of the first order.

[The tweet thread can be followed from the tweet below].

I am intimately involved in digital initiatives in the party directly and/or indirectly. I can say with authority and to the best of my knowledge that the news about the use of Cambridge Analytics by Congress party is a pure lie.

I have spent over 50 years in Telecom and IT business and know enough about Big Data, analytics, cloud computing, machine learning and other related technologies. I know that Cambridge Analytica has nothing unique to offer us that people like me do not know or cannot learn.

We are capable of doing these things on our own and do not need expensive foreign experts to teach us to execute. I personally know several big data analytics experts of International repute in India who can do what Cambridge analytics offers at much lower cost.

I have promoted indigenous development since 1980. I continue to build and encourage Indian talent to do things that need to be done on our own in digital domain.

We built our own Aadhaar, data centres, cyber security, National Knowledge Network of Gigabit bandwidth, national GIS, connectivity to panchayats, and various applications for Digital India which one billion people use happily!

You think we need foreign experts to analyse Big Data related to our people and our elections? You think we don’t know how to analyse our own data?

Please have some sanity in what you say and how you say it in the media. Please check your facts and sources before going public. We all have our reputation and responsibility, please take it seriously.

Please stop spreading lies and unnecessary attacks to hurt sentiments of innocent people and institutions just because it improves your TRP and increasing your clicks to ultimately improve profits.

I believe It is in our national interest to focus on truth and trust to enhance cooperation and collaboration needed to build modern India with prosperity that we all would be proud of.