Rahul Gandhi-aide Sam Pitroda justifies "monkey" remark at Indians on use of mobile phones, targets media after controversy

Rahul Gandhi's close aide and Congress' Overseas chief Sam Pitroda on Saturday justified his "monkey" remark at Indians and targeted the press instead. Pitroda had said earlier on April 6 that Indians are like monkeys who don't know how to best use mobile phones.

After the statement created controversy he said that it did not matter to him it was not a damage to the party and only to his personal life. Without a hint of an apology, he then trained his guns at the media and said that some in the media destroy the industry's reputation.

"It is not a damage to the Congress party, but it is a personal damage and these people don't exist to me so ignore them. I thought we always had a healthy press in india. But that's a concern now. A few in the press affects good people. Respect for press is very important and a few guys can destroy it 

"I had basically said that the mobile phone is a toy for mankind given to a monkey and we get used to it after five years."

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Pitroda had insulted Indians calling them monkeys who don't know how to best use mobile phones.

"India is not using connectivity effectively. But you know it's world over today, this is a new toy. So all of a sudden to every monkey you have given a new toy and they are fiddling with it. Okay. They don't know what to do with it yet. I think it will take 5-10 years to figure out that you can do a lot more with it than you are doing it. Today, it is entertainment, you know, gossip, lies. Lies get amplified on social media," he said. 

Taking a swipe at the BJP, he also claimed that Congress did not have the money to spend on advertisements like the party in power does.

"We don't have the money like the BJP does to spend on advertisement. We can't take up four pages of advertisement. We can't make a TV channel.  We can't make biopic. 

"It has nothing to do with brains. It has to do with hard cash," he said.

WATCH | Rahul Gandhi's Top Aide Sam Pitroda Insults Indians, Calls Them "monkeys" Who Don't Know How To Use Mobile Phones