New Delhi: Sam Pitroda, whose remarks "people of the East look like the Chinese and those of the South look like Africans" caused a major political furore in election season and embarrassed the Congress, resigned as Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress on Wednesday.
The Congress had earlier distanced itself from Pitroda's remarks.
"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," Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X.
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Pitroda stirred a major controversy in the middle of Lok Sabha polls and BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi seized on them to target the Congress.
Pitroda, in an interview with 'The Statesman', while reflecting upon the democracy in India said, "We have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside few fights here and there. We could hold a country together 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 white and maybe people in the South look like Africans."
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He further added that the people of India respect different languages, religions, food and customs which vary from region to region. "That's the India that I believe in, where everybody has a place and everybody compromises a little bit," he said.
Jairam Ramesh said that the analogies drawn by Sam Pitroda are "most unfortunate and unacceptable".
"The analogies drawn by 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," he said in a post on X.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders slammed Pitroda over his "racist" remarks with PM Modi referring to them in his election rallies.
He said people of the country will not tolerate insults on the basis of the colour of their skin and demanded an answer from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
"'Shehzade aapko jawaab dena padega'. My country will not tolerate the disrespect of my countrymen on the basis of their skin colour and Modi will never tolerate this...," PM Modi said in his rally at Warangal.
"I was thinking a lot that (President) Droupadi Murmu who has a very good reputation and is the daughter of an Adivasi family, then why is Congress trying so hard to defeat her but today I got to know the reason. I got to know that there is an uncle in America who is the philosophical guide of 'Shehzada' and just like the third umpire in cricket this 'Shehzada' takes advice from the third umpire," he said.
"This philosophical uncle said that those who have black skin are from Africa. This means that you are abusing several people of the country on the basis of their skin colour...Where will they take the country? No matter what skin colour we have, we are the people who worship Lord Krishna...," he added.
—ANI
