Sam Pitroda, who resigned from his position as Indian Overseas Congress chairman weeks earlier due to his contentious remarks during the Lok Sabha elections, was reinstated by the Congress on Wednesday. Pitroda was given the assurance by the Congress leadership that he would not allow any future controversy, but the Bharatiya Janata Party took umbrage at the news, claiming his resignation was a ploy to win over voters. According to the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi knew that Sam Pitroda would be brought back by the Congress following the elections.
#BreakingNews: Sam Pitroda re-appointed chairman of Indian Overseas Congress
‘Congress has hoodwinked India’, BJP targets Congress on the same@KuheenaSharma #SamPitroda #Congress pic.twitter.com/1V6dVEZVEh
— News18 (@CNNnews18) June 27, 2024
Controversial Remarks and Resignation
“As PM Modi had predicted, Sam Pitroda’s dismissal by the Congress was only a political ploy. The duplicity of the Congress party and its officials has finally been exposed with his reinstatement as the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress”, said BJP on X.
Sam Pitroda, a close confidant of Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition, resigned from his position on May 8th, following a series of divisive remarks that provided fodder for the BJP to criticize the Congress. Sam Pitroda has provided the party’s leadership with an explanation of the circumstances around his remarks, according to Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh’s statement on Wednesday.
“The Indian National Congress found certain remarks and remarks made by Sam Pitroda during the most recent election campaign to be inappropriate. He resigned as the Overseas Indian Congress Chairman by mutual consent. He went on to explain the words’ original context and how the Modi campaign later misrepresented them. Ramesh wrote in a post on X that the Congress President had reappointed him with the guarantee that he would not allow such incidents to occur in the future.
Sam Pitroda’s comment that people in eastern India resemble Chinese people ignited a great deal of controversy. “With the exception of a few occasional fights, we have lived for 70–75 years in a fairly contented setting. Even though the nation is as diverse as India, with people of Chinese descent in the east, Arabs in the west, White people in the north, and Africans in the south, we could yet manage to keep the country united. That is unimportant. Pitroda had stated in a podcast, “We are all brothers and sisters.”
BJP’s Reaction
The comment was deemed “racist and divisive” by the BJP. Prior to this statement, Pitroda’s mention of the US inheritance tax in the context of the Congress’s Lok Sabha election agenda caused a stir. The BJP accused the party of attempting to transfer the common man’s riches. In an interview following Pitroda’s resignation, Prime Minister Modi stated that the Congress would recall its “US-based” guru in a few days.
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