Amid massive row over his remarks, Sam Pitroda has stepped down as the Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, party General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday.
He added that his resignation has been accepted by party president Mallikarjun Kharge.
“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 comments, made during a podcast where he used ethnic and racial identities to describe India’s diversity, spurred the BJP to label the party “racist”.
Pitroda, an advisor to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, said, “We have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside a few fights here and there. We could hold the country as diverse as India together. Where people in the east look like the Chinese, people in the west look like the Arabs, people in the north look like, maybe, white and people in the south look like Africans.”
“It does not matter. All of us are brothers and sisters. We respect different languages, different religions, different customs, different food,” he said.
His contentious remarks followed his mention of inheritance tax in the United States during a discussion on the Congress’s Lok Sabha poll manifesto, providing the ruling BJP with a powerful tool to accuse the opposition party of targeting citizens’ assets as part of its “redistribution of wealth” agenda.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP’s all-out attack on the Congress, slamming it as racist” and asserting that people would not tolerate insults based on skin colour.
Modi, speaking at rallies in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, said he is furious with the racial profiling of Indians by the US-based “philosopher and uncle of shehzada (Rahul Gandhi)”, and further linked the Congress’s opposition to Droupadi Murmu’s presidential bid to its mindset, which saw her as an “African” because of her dark skin.
“I do not get angry if someone abuses me. Today, the philosopher of ‘shehzada’ (prince) has inflicted such a big abuse that I am full of anger. Will people’s abilities in our country be decided by the colour of their skin? Who has allowed the shehzada to play this game of skin?” he said.
Further, in a post on X, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “I am from South India. I look Indian! My team has enthusiastic members from northeast India. They look Indian! My colleagues from west India look Indian! But, for the racist who is the mentor of Rahul Gandhi we all look African, Chinese, Arab and the White! Thanks for revealing your mindset and your attitude. INDI alliance’s shame!”
As Pitroda’s remarks gained attention and sparked a political uproar, the Congress distanced itself from his words, condemning them as “most unfortunate and unacceptable.”
“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,” Ramesh said.