Amid pushback, Sam Pitroda resigns as chairman of Indian Overseas Congress

Sam Pitroda has decided to step down from his position as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, and the Indian National Congress has accepted his resignation.

"Mr Sam Pitroda has decided to step down as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress of his own accord. The Congress president has accepted his decision," Jairam Ramesh, member of parliament and senior Congress leader, said in a post on social media platform X on Wednesday evening.

This comes after Pitroda triggered controversy on Wednesday with his "people of the east look like the Chinese and those of the south look like Africa" remarks.

"We have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside a few fights here and there," he said in a podcast that was widely circulated on social media.

"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 foods."

The Congress, however, disassociated itself from the remarks. Ramesh, in an earlier post on X, said, "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."

Later, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman lashed out at the Congress leader for his "racist" remark, saying it reveals the mindset and attitude of Rahul Gandhi's mentor.

In a post on X, Sitharaman said, "I am from South India. I look Indian! My team has enthusiastic members from northeast India. They look Indian! My colleagues from west India look Indian!"

At a rally in Warangal, Prime Minister Modi said that he has now understood that the Congress sought to defeat President Droupadi Murmu in the presidential poll because her "skin colour is dark."

"Will the ability of people be decided in my country on the basis of skin colour?" Modi asked.

"Who gave permission to 'shehzada' for this game of skin colour?" he asked.

Sanjay Singh, Aam Aadmi Party MP, also issued a statement saying that no member of the INDIA bloc supports Pitroda's comments.

Earlier, Pitroda stoked controversy while speaking about the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in America and said these are issues that will need to be discussed.

After the comments snowballed into controversy, Pitroda sought to downplay the issue, saying he had only cited inheritance tax in the US as an example. The Congress had distanced itself from the comments then too.

(With agency inputs)