Sam Pitroda quits Congress post after racist remark row, party accepts resignation

Sam Pitroda has quit as the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress and the decision has been accepted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, adding the decision was taken on his own accord. 

The decision came after his racist remark on how Indians from different parts of the country look created a major political controversy amid the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

In a podcast, Pitroda, the head of the Indian Overseas Congress, had said, "We have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside a few fights here and there." "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 food." 

Dissociating itself from Pitroda's remarks, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said 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."

The BJP , however, latched on to Pitroda's remarks to hit out at the Congress and said the opposition party is getting increasingly unmasked as the Lok Sabha polls progress.

It claimed that Pitroda's "racist" comments have betrayed the Congress's bid to divide the country on the lines of race, religion and caste.