Sam Pitroda questions death toll in the Balakot airstrike

An aide of Rahul Gandhi and Indian Overseas Congress chief, Sam Pitroda, has raked up a controversy with his remark that India should not have attacked Pakistan after Pulwama. Sam Pitroda said such attacks happen all the time.

Naive to blame Pakistan, says Sam Pitroda. Sam Pitroda said it was not right to punish Pakistan because of a few terrorists.

A close aide of Rahul Gandhi and Indian Overseas Congress chief, Sam Pitroda, on Friday questioned the death toll in the Balakot airstrike by the Indian Air Force in response to the Pulwama terror attack and said it was wrong to attack Pakistan.

"If they (IAF) killed 300, its ok. I am saying cab you give me more facts an dprove it," Sam Pitroda told new agency ANI. Sam Pitroda said it will be naive to assume that if some people came here and attacked, every nation is to be blamed.

"Don't know much about attacks. It happens all the time. Attack happened in Mumbai also, we could have then reacted and just sent our planes but that is not right approach. According to me that's not how you deal with world," Sam Pitroda added.

On the airstrikes against the Jaish-e-Mohammed camp in Pakistan, Sam Pitroda said people of India deserved to know the facts of the Indian Air Force operation.

Sam Pitroda said it was not right to "punish" Pakistan because of a few terrorists. "Eight people (26/11 terrorists) come and do something, you don't jump on entire nation (Pakistan). Naive to assume that just because some people came here and attacked, every citizen of that nation is to be blamed. I don't believe in that way," Sam Pitroda told ANI.

When asked if Dr Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister was as decisive in his actions as PM Narendra Modi, Pitroda said Manmohan Singh was one of the best Prime Ministers the country ever had.

"A lot of people ridiculed, a lot of people have written articles, they have done movies. It is all bogus," he added.

Sam Pitroda went on to say in the interview that since 2014, a populist government had risen in both India and the United States. "The formula is to create fear by saying that there is enemy at the border. In India, it is Pakistan. In US, it is Mexican immigrants. Then say everything is bad because nobody is competent," he added.