Sam Pitroda has once again shot himself in the foot. His latest faux pas, the second after the elections commenced, has left the Congress party red-faced forcing it to issue a decree to its leaders to "mind their language." On the other hand, the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a tirade against Pitroda and the Congress for the former's comment made during an interview.
In an exclusive interview with The Statesman, the Indian Overseas Congress chief, Pitroda while describing about the diversity of the country went on to add that it's a country where "people in East look like Chinese, people in West look like Arab, people in North look like maybe White and people in South look like Africa".
As the statement snowballed into a controversy, the Congress party chose to "completely disassociate" itself from the analogies drawn by Pitroda.
"The analogies drawn by Mr. Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate India's diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable. The Indian National Congress completely dissociates itself from these analogies," senior party leader Jairam Ramesh said in a message posted on platform X.
Moreover, the Congress party asked its leaders to be mindful when speaking to media whether it is election time or not.
"It is the duty of every Congress member to be mindful when speaking to media whether it is election time or not. When each & every party member is toiling in the ground such utterances are uncalled for & absolutely insensitive," said Jairam Ramesh.
This is not the first time that Pitroda has triggered a controversy. Earlier his support for the idea of an inheritance tax as in the United States had the Prime Minister targeting the Congress.
On Wednesday, PM Modi seized on Pitroda's latest statement to fire salvos at Congress. While addressing a public rally in Telangana’s Warangal, said that he can tolerate the abuse directed at him but to compare people on the basis of colour is unacceptable.
Modi, according to Firstpost, repeated his “shehzade” barb for Gandhi and said, “Aapko jawaab dena padega (You will have to answer for this). My country will not tolerate the disrespect of my countrymen on the basis of their skin colour and Modi will never tolerate this.”
Modi said he today understood why the Congress was hell-bent on defeating Droupadi Murmu, who has a very good reputation and is the daughter of Adivasi family.
“I was thinking a lot that Droupadi Murmu who has a very good reputation and is the daughter of Adiwasi family, that why is Congress trying so hard to defeat her, but today I got to know the reason. 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…,” said the PM.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to platform X to respond to Pitroda. His message said, "Sam bhai, I am from the North East and I look like an Indian. We are a diverse country - we may look different but we are one. Hamare desh ke bare mein thoda to samajh lo! (Have some understanding about the country).
DMK leader TKS Elangovan reportedly said that Pitroda’s remarks were unwarranted as despite regional, cultural and linguistic differences, the people of India were one.
“Racially, we have never differentiated the people of India. This is unwarranted and we are not for it...This (remark) is not ours, we talk about linguistic and cultural equality and that people living in all the states should treated equally...Ultimately what he said is that we are all together, maybe he could not explain it properly,” said Elangovan.
DMK is an ally of the Congress.