Sam Pitroda, Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress, stirred a hornet's nest yet again days after the 'inheritance tax' row. In a recent interview, Pitroda spoke on the diversity of India referring to how people in the East look like the Chinese and those living in the South like Africans.
Speaking on the democracy situation in India, Pitroda said that the country is a shining example of democracy in the world. He added that the people of India have "survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside few fights here and there".
"We have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside few fights here and there. We could hold a country together as diverse as India, where people on the East look like Chinese, people on the West look like Arabs, people on the North maybe look like White and people in South India look like Africans. It doesn't matter. We are all brothers and sisters," Pitroda said in an interview with The Statesman.
He also said that Indians respect different languages, religion, food and customs which varies from region to region. "That's the India that I believe in, where everybody has a place and everybody compromises a little bit," Pitroda mentioned.
The senior Congress leader, however, clarified that this view is challenged by "one that includes the Ram Temple and Ram Navami and the PM is going to temples all the time and talking not as a national leader, but that of the BJP." Pitroda's remark has been slammed by Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, who said on X that he is from the North East and looks like an Indian.
Sarma said in a post on X: "Sam bhai, I am from the North East and I look like an Indian. We are a diverse country- we may look different but we are all one. Please understand at least something about our country!"
Actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut accused Pitroda of making "racist" and "divisive" comments. She said: "Sam Pitroda is Rahul Gandhi's mentor. Listen to his racist and divisive jibes for Indians. Their whole (the Congress') ideology is about divide and rule. It's sickening to call fellow Indians Chinese and African. Shame on Congress!"
After Pitroda's statement caused much upset for the Congress, Jairam Ramesh took to X and said that the analogies drawn by Pitroda to explain India's diversity are "most unfortunate and unacceptable."
This, however, is not the first time that Sam Pitroda has made a controversial statement. Earlier, Pitroda told news agency ANI in an interview that the Congress, if it is voted to power, would create policies to prevent concentration of wealth.
Explaining his point further, Sam Pitroda referred to the inheritance tax in the US. “In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has $100 million worth of wealth, when he dies he can only transfer probably 45 per cent to his children, 55 per cent is grabbed by the government. That's an interesting law,” Pitroda said. He said that the 50 per cent tax on wealth "sounds fair" for him.
Pitroda's comments on wealth redistribution tax landed the Congress in hot waters as party president Mallikarjun Kharge had to state that this is not the official line of the grand old party. The octagenarian politician said that the Congress did not have any intention of imposing an inheritance tax and that this cannot be done as there is a Constitution.