New Delhi: Sam Pitroda has been reinstated as the Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, as announced by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in a statement released on Wednesday. The decision to reappoint Pitroda to the position was made by the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Earlier in May, Pitroda had resigned from the position amid controversies surrounding his remarks regarding the appearance of Indians. The Congress party then distanced itself from Pitroda’s remarks.
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, with the ruling BJP coming out all guns blazing against the Congress party, Jairam Ramesh said that the analogies drawn by Sam Pitroda are “most unfortunate and unacceptable.”
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. Emphasising the need for policy towards wealth redistribution, Pitroda elaborated on the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in America.
