Sam Pitroda resigns as chairman of Indian Overseas Congress

Congress leader Sam Pitroda on Wednesday resigned as the Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress after his controversial remarks spurred the BJP to label the party racist Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X that party chief Mallikarjun Kharge has accepted Pitrodas decisionMr 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 his postThe development came after Pitrodas choice of ethnic and racial identities like Chinese Arabs Whites and Africans at a podcast to describe how Indians from different parts of the country look triggered a political firestorm The Congress swiftly distanced itself from his words calling the remarks most unfortunate and unacceptableWith campaigning in full swing ahead of the fourth phase of polls Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJPs allout attack on the Congress on Pitrodas analogy and asserted that people will not tolerate the attempt to insult them on the basis of their skin colourAt his rallies in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Modi said he is livid with the racial profiling of Indians by the USbased philosopher and uncle of Shehzada and linked the Congresss opposition to Droupadi Murmus presidential bid to its mindset which saw her as an African because of her dark skinAs the row erupted Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X The analogies drawn by Mr Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate Indias diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable The Indian National Congress completely dissociates itself from these analogiesRamesh later announced Pitrodas decision to resign and that the Congress president has accepted itThe BJP dismissed the Congresss disassociation with the controversial comments as it noted at a press conference that Pitroda has a history of making insulting and demeaning comments including on terrorism and the 1984 antiSikh riotsHis hua to hua so what reaction to a question on the 1984 communal violence and it happens all the time reference to the Pulwama terror attack both in 2019 as the country was gearing up for the general election had also triggered massive rowsEarlier during the campaign Pitrodas reference to inheritance tax in the United States as an interesting law while discussing the Congresss Lok Sabha poll manifesto was latched onto by the BJP to accuse the opposition party of eying citizens assets as part of its redistribution of wealth policyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever