Another self goal: Times when Sam Pitroda's gaffes left Congress red-faced

Sam Pitroda's remarks have often left Congress red-faced

For the second time in the last month, Sam Pitroda, who stepped down as Indian Overseas Congress chairman on May 8, sent his party colleagues scrambling to issue clarifications. This time, with a racist analogy.

In an interview with The Statesman, originally released on May 2, Pitroda compared Indians belonging to different regions to Chinese, Arabs, Whites and Africans, based on their appearances.

"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," Pitroda, the former head of the Indian Overseas Congress, said.

The seemingly racist analogy went viral on social media and prompted a backlash from BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Meanwhile, Congress quickly distanced itself from the remarks and called them "unfortunate and unacceptable".

However, this is not the first time that Pitroda's remarks left Congress red-faced and gave fodder to its rivals.

Just last month, Congress found itself in a fire-fighting mode after Pitroda called inheritance tax - imposed by some states in US - an "interesting idea".

PM Modi and several BJP leaders seized on Pitroda's remarks to double down on their wealth redistribution offensive against Congress.

“If one has $100 million worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer probably 45% to his children, 55% 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 public, not all of it, half of it, which to me sounds fair," Pitroda said.

He said that India does not have such a provision. “If somebody is worth Rs 10 billion and he dies, his children get Rs 10 billion and the public gets nothing ... So these are the kind of issues people will have to debate and discuss. I don't know what the conclusion would be at the end of the day but when we talk about redistributing wealth, we are talking about new policies and new programs that are in the interest of the people and not in the interest of super-rich only."

Here are some other controversial statements made by Sam Pitroda in the past

'Hua to Hua' - On anti-Sikh riots

In May 2019, during the previous Lok Sabha polls, Pitroda caused a major uproar with his casual dismissal of the 1984 riots.

On BJP's claim that alleged instructions that triggered the 1984 anti-Sikh riots came from Rajiv Gandhi himself, Pitroda denied the charges but said: “Ab kya hai ’84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye. ’84 mein hua to hua. Aapne kya kiya? (Now what is there to say about 1984? Talk about what you did in the last 5 years. What happened in 1984 happened. But what have you achieved?).”

The remarks drew ire of BJP and other parties, prompting Pitroda to apologise later to the Congress.

'Happens all the time' - On Pulwama

In February 2019, Pitroda questioned the Balakot air strikes carried out by Indian Air Force in Pakistan in retaliation to the Pulwama attack.

“I don’t know much about attacks. It happens all the time. Attack happened in Mumbai, also. We could have then reacted and just sent our planes, but that is not the right approach. According to me, that’s not how you deal with the world," Pitroda said.

He also sought evidence of the IAF’s operation.

'Everyone talks about Ram' - On Ram Mandir

Last year, amid anticipation of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Pitroda said that temples are not going to create jobs in the country. "No one talks about these things. But everyone talks about Ram, Hanuman, and Mandir. I have said that temples are not going to create jobs," he said. BJP was quick to condemn these remarks, calling Pitroda and Rahul Gandhi "Hinduphobic". Expectedly, Congress distanced itself from the remarks.

'Middle class shouldn't be selfish'

In 2019, Pitroda left Congress red-faced againw hen he commented on the grand old party's NYAY scheme that promised a minimum guaranteed income for the poor. He said that middle class shouldn't be "selfish" and must pay more taxes to fund the scheme.

“The middle class should not be selfish and have a big heart," he said in a TV interview.

The remarks triggered a political backlash and promoted Rahul Gandhi and former finance minister P Chidambaram to clarify that there will not be any increase in taxes.

Nehru's contribution to Constitution

Earlier this year, Pitroda shared a post on X citing Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former close aide of BJP veteran LK Advani, to say that Jawaharlal Nehru contributed more to the framing of Indian Constitution than BR Ambedkar. He later deleted the post.

The post stoked a major firestorm on social media, with people calling out Pitroda for belittling Ambedkar, who is known as the architect of the Constitution.