After Supriya Shrinate’s ‘Mandi rate’ comment on noted actress Kangana Ranaut getting the BJP ticket to contest the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh, and Randeep Singh Surjewala’s controversial reference to the saffron party’s Mathura MP and evergreen ‘Dream Girl’ Hema Malini, the Congress jug of embarrassments finally appears to have spilled over.
Then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s famous modernization and digitalization days advisor Sam Pitroda has been ensnared in the eye of a political storm by making comparisons of Indians from different parts of the country to people from other countries, continents and races, which have been orchestrated as being “racist”, sending a deeply embarrassed Congress scurrying for cover.
Within hours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders beginning to rake up Pitroda’s comments to attack the Congress, terming the party “racist”, the grand old party was compelled to distance itself from the comments, calling them “unfortunate and unacceptable”. Taking the fire-fighting further, the party later announced that Pitroda has resigned as Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress on his own will.
Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh posted 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.”
In another X post later he declared that “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.”
In a recent interview with The Statesman, Pitroda had said: “We could hold together a country as diverse as India — where people on East look like Chinese, people on West look like Arab, people on North look like, maybe, White!, and people in South look like Africans. It doesn’t matter. We are all brothers and sisters.”
Though apparently Pitroda may not have meant his comments to be racist in nature, and said it in a lighter vein, in a surcharged election atmosphere it provided the BJP with enough gunpowder to blast the Congress.
Addressing an election rally in Telangana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanded a response from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, asserting that the country “won’t tolerate disrespect on the basis of the colour of skin”. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lashed out at Sam Pitroda for his “racist” remark, saying that it reveals the mindset and attitude of Rahul Gandhi’s “mentor”.
Who is Sam Pitroda?
Sam Pitroda, an information and communications technology (ICT) expert with 50 years of experience in the field, was advisor to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during the 1980s, in the rank of Union cabinet minister. During the time, he led among other critical projects, six technology missions in the country related to telecommunications, water, literacy, immunization, dairy production, and oil seeds.
His profile on his website says that Pitroda is a serial entrepreneur having started several companies in the United States. He holds around 20 honorary PhD’s, close to 100 worldwide patents, and has published five books and numerous papers and lectured widely all over the world. He lives in Chicago.
