Congress leader Sam Pitroda has stirred major controversy after remarking that Indians living in the East resemble the Chinese while those in South resemble Africans drawing swift criticism from the BJP. In an interview with an Indian media agency, Pitroda, while discussing India’s status as a democratic example said the country’s people survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together leaving a few fights here and there.
“We could hold together a country as diverse as India, where people in the east look like the Chinese, people on the west look like Arab, people on the north look like maybe White, and people in the South look like Africans. It doesn’t matter, we are all brothers and sisters,” Pitroda said in an interview. He added “We all respect different languages, religions, customs and food. That’s the India we believe in, where everybody has a place and everyone compromises little bit.
In India
People in the East look like Chinese
People in the West look like Arab
People in the North look like maybe White and
People in South look like Africa
– Congress leader #SamPitroda pic.twitter.com/MJnC15urlD
— Organiser Weekly (@eOrganiser) May 8, 2024
Reacting to Pitroda’s controversial remarks, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a post on X, “Sam bhai, I am from the North East. And I look like an Indian. We are diverse country-we may look different but we all are one. Actress and BJP candidate from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, Kangana Ranaut lashed out at the Congress and condemned Pitroda’s comments as racist and divisive. In a jab, she called him Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s mentor.
Also Read: Wealth Redistribution Row: BJP rips apart into Sam Pitroda’s inheritance tax suggestion
“Their whole ideology is about divide and rule. It’s sickening to call fellow Indians Chinese and African, shame on Congress,” she tweeted. BJP MP Ravi Shankar also disparaged Pitroda and said that diverse India comparison, the Congress leader few further illustrates that he has no understanding of the country and its culture. “It’s clear that that he (Pitroda) is a failure, he doesn’t understand the country. He is Rahul Gandhi’s Adviser; I can now understand why Rahul Gandho speaks nonsense. This is the frustration of defeat. They neither understand India nor its heritage,” Ravi Shankar Prasad told an Indian news agency.
Calling Pitroda as the Shakuni of the Congress party former Congress leader and BJP spokesperson CR Kesavan slammed his comments as racist and vile. “Vile and racist statement by the Shakuni of the Congress party, Sam Pitroda has demeaned and insulted everyone of our bigoted and divisive mindset of the Congress leadership, what kind of a perverse and parochial mindset is this? It reflects the diseased and divisive mindset of the Congress party, he further added.
The Congress party has dissociated itself from Pitroda’s comments, calling them most unfortunate and unacceptable. “The analogies drawn by Sam Pitroda in podcast to illustrate India ‘s diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable. The Indian National Congress completely disassociates itself from these analogies,” Jairam Ramesh, Congress General Secretary in charge of communications posted on X.
Earlier, Pitroda stoked a controversy while speaking about the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in America and said these are issued that will need to be discussed. “In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has 100 million USD worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer 45 per cent to his children, 55 per cent is grabbed by the government. That’s an interesting law. It says you in your generation, made wealth and you are leaving now, you must leave your wealth for the public, not all of it, half of it, which to me sounds fair,” Pitroda had said.
After the comments snowballed into a controversy, Pitroda sought to downplay the issue saying he had only cited inheritance tax in the US as an example.
“Who said 55 per cent will be taken away? Who said something like this should be done in India? Why is BJP and media in panic? I mentioned US inheritance tax in the US only as an example in my normal conversation on TV. Can I not mention facts? I said these are the kind of issues people will have to discuss and debate. This has nothing to do with the policies of any party, including Congress,” Pitroda said in his post on X.
However, the Congress officially distanced itself from Pitroda’s comments, saying that they did not reflect the view of the party at all times.
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