- Sunday, May 19, 2024
Pitroda, who is known to be close to Rahul Gandhi, faced flak recently over his remarks on ‘inheritance tax’.
By: Twinkle Roy
JUST weeks after triggering a controversy with remarks on ‘inheritance tax’, Sam Pitroda, chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress and a close aide of the opposition Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has roused yet another storm of controversy with an allegedly racist remark on Indian people. It did not take long for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi to pounce upon it and attack both Pitroda, 82, and the opposition Congress.
Pitroda made his controversial remarks in an interview with The Statesman newspaper where, while emphasising how India has developed itself as a strong democracy and has “survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people are living together”, he said, “We could hold together a country as diverse as India — where people in the east look like Chinese, people in the west look like Arab, people in the north look like maybe whites, and people in the south look like Africans. It doesn’t matter. We are all brothers and sisters.”
“We all respect different languages, different religions, customs and food. That’s the India that I believe in, where everybody has a place and everybody compromises a little bit,” he added.
Read: Not opposed to Muslims, says Modi amid India’s highly polarised polls
The senior leader’s comments backfired quickly with a number of BJP leaders, including the prime minister, accusing him of making racist remarks.
Modi, who had attacked Pitroda over his ‘inheritance tax’ remarks in the recent past, said in response at a rally in Warangal in the poll-bound southern state of Telangana that India will not tolerate such insults.
“One Shehjade’s (referring to Rahul Gandhi) uncle lives in America. When there is any confusion, he takes opinion with his uncle. His uncle said those whose skin is black color are African. He called our Indian people African. Now I understand why they keep insulting our president Droupdi Murmu, just because her skin colour is black they thought she is African and they should defeat her. Shehjade’s uncle Sam Pitroda is his 3rd Umpire,” the PM said.
Read: Explained: what is US inheritance tax that India’s Sam Pitroda mentioned to trigger a row
The nomination and election and Murmu, who has a Dalit (marginalised Hindu caste) background, had also triggered controversy in the past with Modi and his party accusing the Grand Old Party of opposing her candidature because of her background.
Modi also said, “I am very angry today , if someone abuses me, I can tolerate it but today, Shehjade’s philosopher had crossed the limit. Will skin color now decide our ability? They are insulting people of India on basis of skin color. I will not tolerate insults of my fellow Indians.” He asked the people to give a reply to the alleged insult.
Telangana and its neighbouring Andhra Pradesh will go to elections in the fourth phase of the ongoing general elections on May 13. In Andhra, the state elections will also take place on the same day.
Modi’s BJP has remained a fringe player in the politics of both these states but this year, it has made an alliance with Telugu Desam Party and Jana Sena Party for the elections, both for the national and Andhra elections, with an aim making making inroads in the region.
Chief ministers of BJP-ruled north-eastern states such as Assam and Manipur also slammed Pitroda and sought an apology from the Congress party.
N Biren Singh, chief minister of Manipur, alleged that the Congress has a hidden agenda to divide India on religious grounds and even blamed the opposition party for the volatile situation in his state where many people have been killed and thousands have been injured and rendered homeless due to ethnic violence since May last year.
His counterpart from the state of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, addressed Pitroda in a post on X, “Sam bhai, I am from the Northeast and I look like an Indian. We are a diverse country – we may look different, but we are all one. Hamare desh ke bare mein thoda to samajh lo! (have some understanding about our country)”
Temjen Imna, a top minister from another northeastern state of Nagaland, also criticised the Congress alleging that its leaders speak without knowing the north-east’s heritage. The BJP leader also said that they should be punished, CNN-News18 reported.
The Congress, however, dissociated itself from Pitroda’s remarks.
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
The party’s communications in-charge and parliamentarian, Jairam Ramesh, posted on X, “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.”
It had done the same after Pitroda had courted controversy with his “inheritance tax” remarks.
