Congress wheels out its 'stealth missiles' Sam Pitroda, Mani Shankar Aiyar during elections: Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah has said that Sam Pitroda and Mani Shankar Aiyar are "stealth missiles" of Congress who are wheeled out during elections to advance the party's agenda.

In an interview with The Times of India, Shah suggested that Congress uses the two leaders to propogate its agenda and indulge in "politics of deception".

Shah was asked whether it's unfair of BJP to target Congress over the remarks made by the two leaders, who have clarified that they were expressing their personal opinions.

"The two gentlemen are parked in the garage and are wheeled out at election time to advance Congress’s agenda. Political parties are entitled to have their opinions no matter how controversial but they should have the courage to spell them out. We express our viewpoint freely and boldly but they do so by stealth. Aiyar and Pitroda are their stealth missiles. Both are useful for their politics of deception. Congress tries to distance itself from their remarks whenever it suits it and stages a show of taking action against them when things go awry," Shah told TOI.

The home minister added that he has lost count the number of times Congress suspensed Aiyar and "later rehabilitated him with full honour".

He added that Aiyar only articulated the Congress’s view that PoK be considered part of Pakistan.

"Pitroda’s remarks dividing people on the basis of facial features are reflective of the Congress mindset, which believes that India is just a collective of different ethnicities who have somehow been packed together. What they don’t recognise and appreciate is the emotional and cultural bonds which have integrated us for thousands of years," he said.

Recent remarks made by both Pitroda and Aiyar left Congress on a sticky wicket, with the party distancing itself from the views of the leaders.

In an interview to a YouTube channel, Aiyar said that India should "respect Pakistan" since it has atom bombs.

Pitroda, meanwhile, made two controversial remarks in a space of one month. In April, he called inheritance tax, which is imposed by some states in US, an "interesting idea".

Later, in an interview with The Statesman, Pitroda compared Indians from different parts of the country to Chinese, Arabs, Africans, and Whites based on their appearance.

Both the remarks triggered a huge backlash, with BJP leaders launching an all-out attack on Congress.

Pitroda tendered his resignation as the Indian Overseas Congress chairman after his racist statement.