Sam Pitroda quits as chairman of Indian Overseas Congress after racist remark stirs row

Sam Pitroda

Hours after his recent racist remarks caused a major backlash, Sam Pitroda on Wednesday resigned as the chairman of Indian Overseas Congress.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has accepted his resignation.

"Mr. 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," Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X.

Pitroda retweeted Ramesh's post from his official handle.

The resignation comes hours after Pitroda's comments that people in the eastern parts of the country resembled the Chinese, while those from the south looked like Africans, caused a political firestorm.

"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 said in a recent podcast with The Statesman.

The seemingly racist analogy went viral on social media and invited criticism from all quarters, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders from southern and eastern parts of the country.

The Congress was quick to distance itself from Pitroda's remarks, calling them "unfortunate and unacceptable".

However, BJP 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.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Pitroda's remarks "filled him with anger" and added that people of the country will not tolerate insult on the basis of skin colour.

"I got to know that there is an uncle in America who is the philosophical guide of 'Shehzada' [Rahul] and just like the third umpire in cricket this 'Shehzada' takes advice from the third umpire," he said at a rally in Telangana, in an apparent reference to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Sam Pitroda.

In the past too, controversial remarks made by Pitroda have caused unease among the Congress rank and file and sent the party leadership scrambling to issue clarification.

Just last month, 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.