As India awaits Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s release from Pakistan, Narendra Modi raises eyebrows with his ‘pilot project’ remark 

Narendra Modi.

Right after his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan said the captured Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman will be released, on Friday, as a “gesture of peace”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised eyebrows on both sides of the India-Pakistan when he apparently used “pilot” as a pun during a function in New Delhi.

While felicitating scientists at the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi, Modi said, said: “Aap toh laboratories me zindagi guzaarne vale log hain, aur aapme pehle ‘pilot project’ karne ki parampara hoti hai. Pilot project karne ke baad scalability hoti hai. Abhi abhi ek pilot project pura ho gaya. Abhi real karna hai, pehle toh practice thi.” (You people spend your lives in laboratories. It is a custom to first make a ‘pilot project’. Scalability is done after that. Just now one pilot project has been completed. Now we have to make it real, earlier it was just practice.)

Indian and Pakistani commentators and media took notice of this and wondered if it was a benign or a belligerent remark from the Indian prime minister amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan.

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