Sam Pitroda, a confidant of Nehru-Gandhi family since the days of his friend, the late Rajiv Gandhi, hastily stepped down as chief of Indian Overseas Congress after his comment likening Indians in different parts of the country to different racial groups sparked an outrage.
PM Modi, who was campaigning in Telangana and Andhra, savaged the “friend, philosopher, guide and uncle of shehzada (Rahul Gandhi)” for his “racism”, linking the “racial profiling” to Congress’ opposition to the election of Droupadi Murmu as President in 2022 “because of her skin colour”.
Congress, which swiftly went into damage-control mode by disassociating itself from US-based Pitroda’s remark, immediately accepted his resignation later in the day in a bid to cap the controversy, which saw CMs of northeastern states taking exception to being equated with the Chinese in terms of looks.
Pitroda’s remark follows another controversy he recently triggered by supporting the idea of 55% inheritance tax.
You should look at your track record. Your dadi (Indira Gandhi) imposed Emergency at one go. Your father introduced triple talaq at one go, and now your party has stolen OBC reservations at one go.” Home minister Amit Shah also slammed Congress for declaring it would repeal CAA after winning the Lok Sabha elections. “Rahul baba, aapki dadi bhi upar se aa jayein to bhi CAA ko nahi hata payengi (Rahul, even if your grandmother were to return from heaven, CAA can't be repealed),” he said, iterating BJP's vow to accord respect to every Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist coming to India from Pakistan and Bangladesh by giving them citizenship. Referring to SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav's remarks on the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Shah said that if the opposition had its way, they would put a “Babri lock” on the shrine. He said that when SP was in office, uninterrupted power supply was ensured during Ramzan, but not on Diwali and Holi.
