Congress ideologue Sam Pitroda, who resigned following outrage over his racist remarks against Indians during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, was re-appointed as the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress.
The All India Congress Committee shared a notification on June 26, 2024, announcing that the Congress President has reappointed Sam Pitroda as the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress.
Sam Pitroda re-appointed as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress with immediate effect pic.twitter.com/JZNb5P3PCD
— ANI (@ANI) June 26, 2024
On 8 May 2024, the Indian Overseas Congress President Sam Pitroda resigned from his post after his racist remarks about Indians from various regions, and the backlash that followed it. The resignation was accepted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Pitroda had claimed that Indians native to the Eastern side of the country resemble Chinese people, those living in the West appear Middle Eastern while North Indians look like ‘white people’ and the ones in the South are similar in appearance to the people of ‘Africa’.
Sam Pitroda stated, “We could hold a country together as diverse as India where people on the East look like Chinese, people on the West look like Arab, people on the North look like maybe White and people in the South look like Africa. Doesn’t matter. We are all brothers and sisters. We all respect different languages. We all respect different religions, different looks, different customs. different food and as a Gujarati, I love dosa, I love idli. That’s my food. That’s no longer South Indian food. Okay, that’s the India I believe in where everybody has a place and everybody compromises a little bit.”
Pitroda’s earlier comment on inheritance tax
Sam Pitroda was in the news last month for doubling down on ‘inheritance tax’. Amidst outrage over the Congress party’s ‘wealth redistribution’ poll promise, Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress and Rahul Gandhi’s advisor Sam Pitroda has suggested that a US-like inheritance tax should be brought in India. Pitroda while explaining the inheritance tax claimed that in the US, 55% of the wealth is grabbed by the government when a person dies and the rest goes to the family, suggesting that Congress can bring a similar policy under its wealth redistribution promise.
Sam Pitroda’s ‘Hua toh Hua’ comment to shrug off the 1984 Sikh genocide
Sam Pitroda is best known for his callous comment shrugging off the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in a bid to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is not the first time when Pitroda has shrugged off a serious topic on a casual note. Earlier, he had insulted the Pulwama martyrs by trivialising the attack and towing Pakistan line by demanding proof of the Balakot airstrikes.
“Ab kya hai ’84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye. ’84 mein hua to hua. Aapne kya kiya? (now what about ’84? What did you do in 5 years, talk about that. What happened in ’84 had happened. What did you do?) 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 (you didn’t do that also. You didn’t do anything hence you are talking here and there)”, he said.
