June 26th 2024.
New Delhi: On Wednesday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced the reappointment of Sam Pitroda as the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress. This comes after Pitroda had resigned from the position a few weeks ago due to some controversial remarks he had made during the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP had labeled these remarks as "racist".
Pitroda, who is known to be a close aide of Rahul Gandhi, had offered his resignation on May 8 and it was accepted by the Congress chief. However, in a recent statement, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal revealed that Pitroda has been reappointed with immediate effect.
The veteran leader had caused a stir with his comments during a podcast, where he used ethnic and racial identities such as Chinese, Africans, Arabs and Whites to describe the physical appearance of Indians from different parts of the country. Pitroda has been an advisor to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and has been closely associated with Rahul Gandhi. He often accompanies him on his foreign visits and has organized several interactions with students from foreign universities in countries like the UK, UAE and US.
The BJP had used Pitroda's remarks as a political weapon during the election campaign, forcing the Congress to take swift action and disassociate themselves from his statements. They called it "most unfortunate and unacceptable". With the fourth phase of elections in full swing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an all-out attack on the Congress, denouncing Pitroda's analogy and labeling it as "racist". He made it clear that people will not tolerate any attempt to insult them based on their skin color.
During his rallies in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Modi expressed his anger over the racial profiling of Indians by the US-based "philosopher and uncle of 'Shehzada'". He also linked the Congress' opposition to Droupadi Murmu's presidential bid to their mindset, stating that they saw her as an "African" because of her dark skin.
In the podcast, Pitroda had remarked, "We have survived 75 years in a very harmonious environment, where people could coexist, despite a few disagreements here and there." He further added, "We have managed to keep a diverse country like India united, where people in the east resemble the Chinese, people in the west resemble the Arabs, people in the north may look white, and people in the south may look like Africans. But it doesn't matter because we are all brothers and sisters. We respect each other's languages, religions, customs, and food."
Prior to this, Pitroda had also faced criticism for his mention of inheritance tax in the United States while discussing the Congress' manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls. The ruling BJP used this as an opportunity to accuse the opposition party of having a "redistribution of wealth" policy that aimed to seize citizens' assets.
The BJP had also accused Pitroda of having a history of making "insulting and demeaning" comments, including remarks on terrorism and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He had also triggered controversy in 2019, during the general elections, with his "hua to hua" response to a question on the 1984 communal violence and his statement "it happens all the time" in reference to the Pulwama terror attack.
Overall, Pitroda's reappointment as the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress has stirred up a lot of controversy and has become a major talking point in the political landscape of the country.
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