Congress leader Jairam Ramesh (left) and Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda
Credit: PTI Photos
The Congress on Wednesday chose to distance itself from its Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda's racist remarks while attempting an analogy of India's diversity which drew sharp criticism from BJP leaders.
"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," party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said on 'X'.
Pitroda made the comments while speaking to The Statesman. In a video being circulated online, Pitroda can be heard saying "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 Africa. It doesn't matter. We are all brothers and sisters."
Recently, Pitroda's comments on inheritance tax had also drawn similar responses from the BJP and the Congress had distanced itself from his remarks saying that it would not implement such a measure.
BJP had then also launched an attack over his comments, with PM Narendra Modi saying the Congress was planning to impose higher taxes and does not want people to pass on their hard-earned wealth to their children.