Sam Pitroda stirs another row, Congress dissociates itself from his remarks

Congress leader Sam Pitroda triggered another controversy on Wednesday with his people of the east look like the Chinese and those of the south look like Africa remarks with the ruling BJP latching on to his racist comments and claiming that those have exposed the opposition partys divisive politicsThe Congress however distanced itself from Pitrodas remarks describing those as unfortunate and unacceptable and saying the party completely dissociates itself from the commentsIn a podcast Pitroda the head of the Indian Overseas Congress said We have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together leaving aside a few fights here and thereWe 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 Pitroda said in the interview that was widely circulated on social mediaDissociating itself from Pitrodas remarks 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 analogiesThe Bharatiya Janata Party BJP however latched on to Pitrodas remarks to hit out at the Congress and said the opposition party is getting increasingly unmasked as the Lok Sabha polls progressIt claimed that Pitrodas racist comments have betrayed the Congresss bid to divide the country on the lines of race religion and casteBJP leaders Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Sudhanshu Trivedi claimed that Pitroda has highlighted the idea of India that Congress bigwigs such as Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi believe inPitroda has been a mentor to Rahul Gandhi who has often run down the Indian democracy and the countrys institutions during his foreign trips Chandrasekhar saidTrivedi said the ongoing Lok Sabha polls have now become a battle between those under the influence of a foreign mindset in their definition of India and an India that is aatmanirbhar selfreliant and brimming with selfprideSam Pityroda on you Union minister Anurag Thakur said on XWhile for us all Indians look like Indians the Congress insists on categorising them based on foreign ethnic lines such as Chinese Arab White and African Only a party with a colonial mindset like Congress could indulge in such deplorable racismHaving failed to stir division between the north and the south Congress now seems intent on sowing ethnic discord Its only a matter of time before the Shehzada following in the footsteps of his mentor champions this divisive strategy Thakur saidIn the podcast interview to a media house Pitroda said As a Gujarati I love dosa I love idli That is my food that is no longer south Indian food That is the India I believe in where everybody has a place and everybody compromises a little bit That idea of India which is rooted in democracy freedom liberty fraternity is being challenged by the Ram temple and Ram Navami and the prime minister going to temples all the time and talking not as a national leader but as a leader of the BJPThat view centres around the Ram temple god history heritage Bhagwan Hanuman Bajrang Dal and all kinds of issues I respect their view he addedThere is another group which says our founding fathers fought against the British Raj not for a Hindu Rashtra but for a secular nation Pakistan decided to create a nation based on religion and see what happened to them We are a shining example of democracy in the world Pitroda saidEarlier the Congress leader had stirred up a controversy by talking about the inheritance tax which the BJP turned into a poll issueThis 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