Sam Pitroda re-appointed Indian Overseas Congress chairman, month after stepping down from post

The party’s Communications chief Jairam Ramesh said “during the recent election campaign Sam Pitroda had made some statements and comments that were totally unacceptable to the Indian National Congress”.

“By mutual consent he stepped down as Chairman of Overseas Indian Congress. Subsequently he 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,” said Ramesh on X.

During the LS poll campaign, in an interview to The Statesman, Pitroda said: “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,” he had added.

Reacting to the remarks, PM Narendra Modi had said in Telangana: “…Today the Shehzada’s (a reference to Rahul Gandhi) philosopher has hurled such a big abuse, which has filled me with anger. Can people’s ability be decided on basis of skin colour?” In April, Pitroda had sparked a controversy, when he said the inheritance tax in the US was an interesting law and could be among issues for debate in India.