“Congress president has reappointed Sam Pitroda as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress with immediate effect,” AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said in a statement on Wednesday.Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that Pitroda was reappointed Indian Overseas Congress chief after he clarified the context in which the controversial statements were made.
So, what forced Pitroda’s ‘temporary separation’ from the Congress?
Well, it was a remark that had the potential to harm the grand old party’s electoral prospects. Pitroda during a podcast cited ethnic and racial identities like Chinese, Africans, Arabs and Whites to describe the physical appearance of Indians from different parts of the country.
In the podcast, Pitroda had said, “We have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside a few fights here and there.”
“We could hold a 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,” he had said.
The BJP was quick to make this a poll issue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP’s attack on Pitroda’s analogy and slammed his comments as “racist”. He asserted that people will not tolerate the attempt to insult them on the basis of their skin colour.
At his rallies in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Modi had said he is livid with the racial profiling of Indians by the US-based “philosopher and uncle of ‘Shehzada'”, and linked the Congress’ opposition to Droupadi Murmu’s presidential bid to its mindset, which saw her as an “African” because of her dark skin.
With PM Modi‘s focus on south outreach, the Congress was quick to distance itself from Pitroda’s remarks and called it “completely unacceptable.”
Unfortunately for the Congress, this was not the first but the second controversy stoked by Pitroda.
His remarks on the concept of inheritance tax in the United States while discussing the Congress’ Lok Sabha poll manifesto gave the ruling BJP a potent handle to accuse the opposition party of eying citizens’ assets as part of its “redistribution of wealth” policy.
This came at a time when the Congress was trying hard to counter Prime Minister Modi’s relentless attack over its manifesto pitch on socio-economic and caste survey and redistribution of resources.
PM Modi attacked Congress with a popular tag line of LIC and said “zindagi ke saath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi” is the opposition party’s mantra to “loot” people. In his poll rallies, PM Modi used Pitroda’s comments to assert that it has exposed Congress’s hidden agenda and that the party has become so removed from the country’s social and family values that it wants to legally rob people of their assets and lifelong savings they want to bequeath to their children.
The Congress was again quick to clarify that Pitroda’s views were not the official views of the party.
What has changed for Congress to reinstate Pitroda?
Well, nothing except that elections are now over so perhaps there is no fear of electoral damage to the Congress in the near future. The party has blamed the BJP for distorting Pitroda’s statement to reap electoral gains.
Pitroda has given an assurance not to leave room for such controversies in future. “He has clarified the context in which statements were made and how they were later distorted by the Modi campaign. The Congress president has reappointed him on the assurance that he will not in future leave room for such controversies to arise,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
Why is Sam Pitroda important for Congress?
The veteran leader was an advisor to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He has been closely associated with Rahul Gandhi, accompanying him during his foreign visits. Pitroda has also arranged several interactions of Rahul with students of foreign universities in the UK, the UAE and the US.
‘PM Modi had already predicted Pitroda’s reinstatement’
The BJP reacted sharply to Congress move and said that the grand old party kept a distance from Sam Pitroda during the Lok Sabha elections just to deceive the public.
“The first thing Rahul Gandhi did as soon as he became the leader of the opposition was to become the leader of hypocrisy and leader of opportunism…One thing is clear from this that the cosmetic distance that the Congress party had made from Sam Pitroda during the elections was only and only a pretence, it was a lie, and it was to deceive the public,” said BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla.
Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju took a jibe at the Congress and said Prime Minister Modi Ji had already predicted this development.
Sharing a post on X, the Union Minister wrote, “Prime Minister Modi ji has already said! Rahul Gandhi Ji’s adviser who said, South Indians look like Africans, North-Eastern people look Chinese, West Indians are like Arabs & North Indian are whites is reinstated. We are not surprised as PM @narendramodi ji had predicted.”
Along with the text, the Union Minister also shared an old video of Prime Minister Modi in which he said that Sam Pitroda doesn’t give controversial statements by chance, rather, it’s the Congress party’s strategy to create new issues in the country.
The PM had then said, “I don’t think he does it by his choice, as after his controversial statements, he is suspended from the party, and after some days, he is again seen in the mainstream works of the party. It’s a well-known strategy of the Congress party to create confusion, change the environment, and add new issues to the nation. So, they play some tactics from time to time.”
Pitroda’s past controversies
On Ram Mandir
In June 2023, Pitroda gave the BJP ammunition to attack the Congress as he said that temples were not going to solve India’s problems of unemployment, inflation, education, and health. “No one talks about these things. But everyone talks about Ram, Hanuman, and Mandir. I have said that temples are not going to create jobs,” he had said then.
On 1984 anti-Sikh riots
In May 2019, Pitroda had said “hua to hua” (so what) when he was asked about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. “Ab kya hai ’84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye. ’84 mein hua to hua. You were voted to create jobs. You were voted to create 200 smart cities. Aapne wo bhi nahi kiya. Aapne kuch nahi kiya isliye aap yahan wahan gup lagate hain’,” Pitroda had then said.
On Pulwama attack
In February 2019, Pitroda kicked up a storm as he raised questions on Balakot air strikes by the Indian Air Force which were carried out in retaliation to the Pulwama attacks. “I don’t know much about attacks. It happens all the time. The attack happened in Mumbai, also. We could have then reacted and just sent our planes, but that is not the right approach. According to me, that’s not how you deal with the world,” Pitroda had said.
Nehru vs Ambedkar on Constitution
Pitroda had in April 2019 cited an article by Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former close aide of BJP veteran LK Advani, and claimed that India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, contributed more than BR Ambedkar in the framing of the Constitution. Pitroda later deleted the post.
Pitroda is now back with the Congress. Will he be more careful with his remarks as he has promised or will he embarrass the grand old party again? Well, we will have to wait for the next round of elections due later this year.
(With inputs from agencies)
