Sam Pitroda, a close associate of the Gandhi family who once held key positions in the Congress establishment, stoked a fresh controversy on Wednesday by referring to Chinese, Arabs, white people and Africans to describe the looks of people in India’s east, west, north and south, respectively.
Pitroda’s comments in an online interaction – while trying to describe the importance of India’s diversity – triggered a political row with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for disrespecting the countrymen on the basis of their skin colour. Late in the evening, Pitroda, a friend of late PM Rajiv Gandhi, resigned from his position as the overseas cell chief of the Congress.
“Mr Sam Pitroda has decided to step down as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress of his own accord. The Congress president has accepted his decision,” said the Congress’s communications chief Jairam Ramesh on X.
The dramatic turn of developments came after an eventful day that saw Modi repeatedly attack the Congress over the remarks and the party distancing itself from the comment.
“We have survived 70-75 years, in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside a few fights here and there. We could hold the country together, as diverse as India – where people in the east look like Chinese, people in the west look like Arabs, people in the north look like, maybe white, and people in the south look like Africans. It doesn’t matter. We are all brothers and sisters,” Pitroda told The Statesman in a web interview.
Almost immediately, the controversy began.
Addressing a rally in Warangal, Modi attacked Rahul Gandhi over Pitroda’s comments. “Shehzade (or prince, a reference to Rahul Gandhi), you will have to answer. My country will not tolerate the disrespect of my countrymen on the basis of their skin colour. Modi will never tolerate this,” he said.
Modi also hinted that the Congress tried to defeat President Droupadi Murmu because of her skin colour. “I was thinking a lot about (President) Droupadi Murmu, who has a very good reputation and is the daughter of the Adivasi family. Why was Congress trying so hard to defeat her? Today I got to know the reason,” he added.
The Congress distanced itself from Pitroda’s comments. “The analogies given by Mr Sam Pitroda in a recent podcast to illustrate India’s diversity are most unfortunate and completely unacceptable. The Indian National Congress rejects these analogies,” Ramesh said. But a section of the Congress maintained that the damage has already been done. “The Congress had set the narrative on the basis of its 25 guarantees and was trying to expose the PM’s lies. But now, the BJP got fresh ammo against us,” said a Congress leader, requesting anonymity.
At the rally in Warangal, Modi referred to Pitroda as an American uncle. “I got to know that there is an uncle in America who is the philosophical guide of shehzada and just like the third umpire in cricket, this shehzada takes advice from the third umpire. This philosophical uncle said that those who have black skin are from Africa. This means that you are abusing several people of the country on the basis of their skin colour,” he added.
At another rally in Rajampet, Modi criticised the Congress’s “divisive mindset,” and asked if key ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) will snap ties for Tamil culture and pride.
“A big leader has displayed the divisive mindset of Congress. What the man very close to Gandhi family and the biggest advisor of shehzada said is very shameful,” Modi said, in a reference to Pitroda’s comments.
“Congress feels those in north eastern India look like Chinese. Can the country accept things like this? Congress feels people in the south look like Africans, will they accept this,” he asked.
He asked the Congress chief ministers of Karnataka and Telangana, Siddaramaiah and Revanth Reddy, respectively, if they would accept “such an accusation”. He asked if Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, “who speaks of Tamil culture”, would sever the alliance.
“Such a serious allegation has been made – will DMK snap ties with Congress, for Tamil pride and the Tamil people? Do they have the guts?” he asked.
Sanjay Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP from the Aam Aadmi Party, that is also part of the INDIA bloc, said none of the members of the opposition grouping will support Pitroda remarks. “None of the INDIA bloc members support his statement,” he told PTI Videos.
To be sure, Pitroda is no stranger to controversies. During the 2019 elections, Pitroda’s comments on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots became a talking point for the BJP. In May 2019, when asked about the riots, Pitroda angrily retorted, “Ab kya hai ’84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye. ’84 mein hua to hua… (What about 1984 [riots] now? Talk about what you (the government) did in the last five years. What happened in 1984 has happened).”
Last month, in the middle of the poll campaign, Pitroda spoke about the importance of inheritance tax, which the BJP then used to attack the Congress.
In another podcast, Chicago-based Pitroda said, “In America, there is an inheritance tax. So, if, let’s say, one has $100 million worth of wealth, and when he dies, he can only transfer probably 45% to his children, the government grabs 55%. That’s an interesting law. It says you in your generation, made wealth and you are leaving now, you must leave your wealth for the public, not all of it, half of it, which to me sounds fair. In India, you don’t have that. If somebody is worth 10 billion and he dies, his children get 10 billion and the public gets nothing… So, these are the kinds of issues people will have to debate and discuss.”
The Congress distanced itself from Pitroda’s comments and said it had no intention of introducing such a tax, but added that it was the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government which had abolished the Estate Duty Tax, which existed for 32 years, in 1985, and that it was in fact, BJP leaders that had advocated for it over the past decade. But that didn’t stop Modi, or other BJP leaders, from alleging that the Opposition party intended to reintroduce the inheritance tax, redistribute the benefits of reservation and wealth to Muslims, and prevent “hard earned wealth from passing down to children”.