Last night, Congress reappointed Sam Pitroda as the Chairman of of the Indian Overseas Congress. He had resigned on May 8th over a controversial remark which he had made during the Lok Sabha elections. In his statement, he had advocated for the implementation of the inheritance tax and had passed a racist comment. He had referred how “people on the East look like Chinese, people on the West look like Arab, people on the North look like maybe White and people in the South look like Africa.”
The Party general secretary K C Venugopal announced, “Congress President has reappointed Shri Sam Pitroda as Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress with immediate effect.”
Sam Pitroda re-appointed as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress with immediate effect pic.twitter.com/JZNb5P3PCD
— ANI (@ANI) June 26, 2024
Congress leader Mr. Jairam Ramesh, tweeted on X, stating that Sam Pitroda has been reappointed “on the assurance that he will not in future leave room for such controversies to arise.”
During the recent election campaign Sam Pitroda had made some statements and comments that were totally unacceptable to the Indian National Congress. By mutual consent he stepped down as Chairman of Overseas Indian Congress. Subsequently he clarified the context in which…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) June 26, 2024
BJP Slams Congress
Reacting to this news, the BJP National Spokesperson Mr. Shehzad Poonawalla, slammed the Congress’s move and called it only a gimmick for polls.
First big move by Congress post Rahul Gandhi becoming LOP is to take Uncle Sam back & reinstate him
This means Congress agrees with Uncle Sam on
1) his racist comments insulting South Indians as Africans ; North East people as Chinese , etc
2) They agree with his statement… pic.twitter.com/qx0QPxZtUz— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) June 26, 2024
BJP in-charge of IT Department, Mr. Amit Malviya, called out the Congress party for its hypocrisy. He tweeted, “The tormentor of middle class is back… Congress hoodwinks India, brings back Sam Pitroda soon after elections. हुआ तो हुआ।”
While the BJP’s national spokesperson C R Kesavan called the reappointment “an egregious insult to all the good citizens of our country.”
Sam Pitroda’s Controversies…
Recently, Sam Pitroda had stoked a controversy while speaking about the concept of the Inheritance Tax. He had said, “In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has 100 million USD worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer 45 per cent to his children, 55 per cent 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 the public, not all of it, half of it, which to me sounds fair.”
Earlier, he had passed the infamous “Hua Toh Hua” comment shrugging off the Sikh riots. He had said, “Ab kya hai ’84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye. ’84 mein hua to hua. Aapne kya kiya?” He had also insulted the Martyrs of Pulwama by downplaying the attack and extending support to Pakistan by demanding proof of the Balakot airstrike.