Our Bureau
New York, NY
Sam Pitroda, a prominent Congress leader, has resigned as the Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress. His decision came after he made controversial remarks that led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to label the Congress party as “racist”. The controversy arose from Pitroda’s comments about the skin color of Indians, which sparked widespread criticism.
Party President Mallikarjun Kharge has accepted Pitroda’s resignation.
Pitroda in a podcast interview to a media house had said: “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.”
Dissociating the party from Pitroda’s remarks, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X: “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.”
