The Congress once again distanced itself from chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda on Wednesday. This time over his remarks comparing east Indians to Chinese and south Indians to Africans.
"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," Congress MP and party communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
A clip from May 2 interview of Pitroda with The Statesman went viral on Wednesday. In the video, he tried to explain about India's diverse nature by likening east Indians to Chinese and south Indians to Africans.
"We could hold together a country as diverse as India, where people on East look like Chinese, people on West look like Arab, people on North look like maybe White and people in South look like Africa. Doesn't matter. We are all brothers and sisters," he told The Statesman.
INDIA bloc member Shive Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said she did not agree with Pitroda's comments.
"I do not agree with his statement. But, is he a member of the manifesto committee, a star campaigner of Congress, and does he reside in this country? He lives abroad," she told ANI. It's unfortunate to make his issues the country's issue... on one side it's the issues of the people and on the other side, what Sam Pitroda is saying from America. We have nothing to do with that, neither it's an issue, nor this country would want to react to what he says."
Pitroda's comments triggered outrage on social media, with the Bharatiya Janata Party slamming the Congress.
In April, Pitroda triggered a massive row by debating a possible US-like inheritance tax in India. His comments came in support of the Congress' stance on redistribution of wealth. The BJP attacked the Congress over his comments and accused the party of taking away people's hard-earned money. At the time too, the Congress issued a statement dissociating with Pitroda's comments.
