BJP slams Pitroda, Congress distances itself from 'skin colour' remark
NEW DELHI: Sam Pitroda, a confidant of Nehru-Gandhi family since the days of his friend, the late Rajiv Gandhi, hastily stepped down as chief of Indian Overseas Congress on Wednesday after his comment likening Indians in different parts of the country to different racial groups sparked an outrage.
PM Modi, who was campaigning in Telangana and Andhra, savaged the “friend, philosopher, guide and uncle of shehzada (Rahul Gandhi)” for his “racism”, linking the “racial profiling” to Congress’s opposition to the election of Droupadi Murmu as President in 2022 “because of her skin colour”.
Congress, which swiftly went into damage-control mode by disassociating itself from US-based Pitroda’s remark, immediately accepted his resignation later in the day in a bid to cap the controversy, which saw CMs of northeastern states taking exception to being equated with the Chinese in terms of looks.
Pitroda’s remark follows another controversy he recently triggered by supporting the idea of 55% inheritance tax.
Pitroda had said in a video conversation with the Statesman, “We could hold together a country as diverse as India where people in east look like Chinese, people in west look like Arabs, people in north look like maybe white and people in south look like Africans… it doesn’t matter. We are all brothers and sisters. The idea of India that is rooted in democracy, freedom, liberty, fraternity is being challenged by Ram temple, Ram Navami and the prime minister going to temple all the time and talking not as a national leader but talking as a leader of BJP.”
“Rahul Gandhi has an uncle (Pitroda) in America who is a friend, philosopher, guide. For the shehzada, he is like the third umpire in cricket who is approached for the final arbitration. He seeks advice from this uncle. This uncle told him that all persons with black skin are African. And Congress voted to defeat Murmu based on her skin colour. It is an insult to the people of the country, the majority of whom are of the same colour,” Modi said.
Senior Union ministers joined in the attack with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman declaring, “I am from south India, I look Indian,” adding to Congress’s discomfiture and putting it under pressure to disengage itself from Pitroda. Although the Congress brass claimed Pitroda had resigned of his own volition, there were clear indications that he was nudged into it, lest his image as a serial offender and loose cannon creates more problems for the party in the final stretch of polls.
Congress, which was still trying to contain the fallout from Pitroda’s remarks on “inheritance tax”, found itself pushed into fire-fighting mode again. “The analogies drawn by Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate India’s diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable. Congress completely dissociates itself from these analogies,” party general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said.
There was disquiet in Congress over repeat offences by the US-based Pitroda. The fact that he is routinely in the news for the wrong reasons, and is specially vulnerable to BJP’s strategy, is hurting the party, while no action was taken against him because of his closeness to the “family”. There were some demands that strict action should be taken against him to dissociate the party from his comments.
BJP rejected Congress’s bid to disassociate itself from Pitroda and said the party had been indulgent of him despite his history of “insulting and demeaning” comments, including on terrorism and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
His “hua to hua” (so what) reaction to a question on the 1984 communal violence and “it happens all the time” reference to the Pulwama terror attack, both in 2019 as the country was gearing up for general elections, had also triggered massive rows.