If you are looking for a refreshingly nonconformist view of WikiLeaks compared to the painfully obfuscatory spiel from the Indian government, here is one from Sam Pitroda. In this little clip from a recent event in New Delhi, it is compelling how Pitroda quickly travels from openness about information to Gandhi to the absolute need to have no contradiction between public and private positions.
“WikiLeaks, which seen today as sin by some, is going to be the norm in the 21st century,” Pitroda says. “Today all governments are focused on command and control because this is the mindset of the past..You will understand that the Gandhi way of dealing (with information) is required. In other words, public position and private position will have to be the same.”
“WikiLeaks really talks about two positions. What you say in public is very different from what you say in private. And that’s why there is tension on WikiLeaks. If you had said the same thing in private and public you would not have a problem,” Sam says.
“I think information will demand openness. So I will have to say the same thing and that’s what Gandhi talked about all the time. I think the leaders of tomorrow will have to recognize that the old days of command and control, secrets is going to minimize, not go away. Some information related to national security and all will have to be tight. But a lot of the information which is considered today confidential is really not confidential. It is all about lying,” Pitroda says.
One of Sam’s many current passions is to release information from the shackles of what he describes with some relish as the “nadawali file”, the kind of the ubiquitous Indian government file with a little red flap and a white string that remains firmly tied unless someone in authority ordains it to be opened. “Let the nada (string) be untied forever and information be released,” is Sam’s firm conviction.