Unfortunate and unacceptable: Congress sets distance from Sam Pitroda’s remarks on India’s diversity
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that Pitroda’s comments were ‘completely racist and very disgusting’.
The Congress on Wednesday distanced itself from remarks made by its overseas unit chief Sam Pitroda on India’s diversity, labelling them as “unfortunate and unacceptable”.
In an interview with The Statesman on Thursday, Pitroda said that India had survived for 75 years in “a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside a few fights here and there”.
“We could hold a country together as diverse as India, where people on the east look like Chinese, people on the West look like Arab, people on the North look like white and maybe people on the South look like Africans,” the Indian Overseas Congress chairman remarked.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, responding to Pitroda’s remarks on social media, said that the Opposition party “rejects these analogies”.
My statement on Mr. Sam Pitroda’s unacceptable analogies on India’s diversity https://t.co/nDrecG5rDt pic.twitter.com/wyuzu6UuLh— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 8, 2024
Ramesh’s clarification came amid criticism from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Pitroda’s comments were “completely racist and very disgusting”.
Modi, speaking at a rally in Telangana’s Warangal district, referred to Pitroda as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “philosopher”.
“Today, the shehzada’s philosopher has hurled such an abuse that it has filled me with anger,” Modi said. The prime minister has repeatedly referred to Gandhi as the shehzada, or the...
