Amid row over controversial remarks, Sam Pitroda steps down as chairman of Indian Overseas Congress
Amid row over controversial remarks, Sam Pitroda steps down as chairman of Indian Overseas Congress
Amid row over several controversial remarks, Sam Pitroda on Wednesday stepped down as the Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress “of his own accord.” His resignation was accepted by party President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress General Secretary in-charge (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said.
“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,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
Pitroda’s resignation comes hours after his fresh remarks in an interview to The Statesman, wherein he sought to emphasise the diversity of India by stating that “people in the East look Chinese, people on West look like Arab, people on North like, maybe, White, and people in the South look like African.”
The remarks were received with brutal criticism with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the BJP’s attack.
Meanwhile, the Congress was quick to distance itself from Pitroda’s comments. “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,” party leader Jairam Ramesh had said.
He had stoked a controversy last month too, when he said the inheritance tax in the US was “an interesting law and could be among issues that people in India debate and discuss.”
Seizing on his remarks, Prime Minister Modi, at a rally in Chhattisgarh had targeted the Gandhi family and the Congress suggesting that the party now had its eyes on the wealth of all Indians.
“The advisor to the royal family prince, and advisor to the father of the prince, has said more taxes should be imposed on the middle class. Now these people have gone a step further. The Congress now says it will impose an inheritance tax. That it will impose tax on the inheritance received from parents. The property you have accumulated through your hard work will not be given to your children. The Congress claws will snatch that too from you,” Modi said.
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