Sam Pitroda re-appointed chairman of Indian Overseas Congress

New Delhi, June 26, 2024: Sam Pitroda was re-appointed as the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, an All India Congress Committee, AICC, press release said on Wednesday, June 26, adding that the Congress President has reappointed Pitroda to the position with immediate effect.

Pitroda had resigned from the position earlier in May this year amid controversies surrounding his remarks regarding the appearance of Indians. The Congress party then distanced itself from Pitroda’s remarks.

At the time of his resignation, Congress General Secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh had noted Pitroda’s decision to step down through a post on X, saying, “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,” the post mentioned.

Pitroda, in an interview with ‘The Statesman’, while reflecting upon the democracy in India, 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 a country together as diverse as India, where people in the East look like Chinese, people in the West look like Arabs, people in the North look like whites, and maybe people in the South look like Africans.”

He said the people of India respect different languages, religions, food and customs, which vary from region to region. “That’s the India that I believe in, where everybody has a place and everybody compromises a little bit,” he said.

As the remarks created an uproar amid the Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP criticized the Congress party, Jairam Ramesh said, “The analogies drawn by Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate India’s diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable,” and declared that the Indian National Congress completely dissociates itself from the description.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the people of the country will not tolerate insults based on the color of their skin and demanded an answer from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

“‘Shehzade aapko jawaab dena padega’. My country will not tolerate the disrespect of my countrymen based on their skin colour and Modi will never tolerate this,” PM Modi said in his rally at Warangal.

“I was thinking a lot about President Droupadi Murmu, who has a very good reputation and is the daughter of an Adivasi family, then why is Congress trying so hard to defeat her but today I got to know the reason. I got to know that there is an uncle in America who is the philosophical guide of ‘Shehzada’ and just like the third umpire in cricket this ‘Shehzada’ takes advice from the third umpire,” he said.

Pitroda had earlier courted controversies with his remarks on sensitive issues, including the one when he advocated for an inheritance tax-like law in the country. Emphasizing the need for policy towards wealth redistribution, Pitroda elaborated on the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in America.

“In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has 100 million USD worth of wealth and, when he dies, can only transfer probably 45 per cent to his children, 55 per cent is grabbed by the government. That’s an interesting law. It says you, in your generation, made wealth and you are leaving now; you must leave your wealth for the public–not all of it, but half of it, which to me sounds fair,” Pitroda said.

PM Modi also hit out at the remarks made by Pitroda about an ‘inheritance tax’-like law, saying that the Congress does not want the countrymen to pass on their property to their children.