Sam Pitroda ignites fire, says Indians in the East look like the Chinese & South look like Africans

Sam Pitroda, Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress, spoke about India's democratic values and diversity in an interview with The Statesman. He highlighted India's 75 years of peaceful coexistence, despite occasional conflicts, and emphasized the co...

Sam Pitroda's racist idea of India: PM Modi lashes out; says 'won't tolerate disrespect of countrymen'
Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda in an interview with The Statesman said that the Indians in the East look like Chinese and those in the South look like Africans.

Pitroda talking about how India is a shining example of democracy in the world, said that the people of the country have "survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together leaving a few fights here and there".

"We could hold together a country as diverse as India -- where people on East look like Chinese, people on West look like Arab, people on North look like maybe White and people in South look like Africans. It doesn't matter. We are all brothers and sisters," said Pitroda during the interview.


ALSO READ: Congress ki Mohabbat ki Dukan actually has Nafrat and Racism ka Saman, says BJP


"We all respect different languages, different religions, customs and food," said Pitroda. "That's the India that I believe in, where everybody has a place and everybody compromises little bit," he added.

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ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi takes advice from uncle in America: PM Modi reacts to Sam Pitroda's 'racist' remarks

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Congress distances itself Sam Pitroda's remarks:
"...Analogies drawn by Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate India's diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable. Indian National Congress completely dissociates itself from these analogies," said Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh on social media platform X.

ALSO READ: Congress distances itself from 'East Indians look like Chinese' statement

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PM Modi reacts to Sam Pitroda's controversial comments:
Spaeking at a public rally in Telangana, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "I got to know that there is an uncle in America who is the philosophical guide of 'Shehzada' and just like the third umpire in cricket this 'Shehzada' takes advice from the third umpire. This philosophical uncle said that those who have black skin are from Africa. This means that you are abusing several people of the country on the basis of their skin colour."

"I understand that Congress had tried to defeat Droupadi Murmu in Presidential elections due to her skin colour," the Prime Minister said.
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BJP calls Pitroda's remarks 'shocking, despicable & disgusting'
BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla said, this is a shocking, despicable and disgusting comment made by Sam Pitroda. "He is the mentor of Rahul Gandhi. It is the word, spirit, vocabulary and ideology of Rahul Gandhi," he added.

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"First, they divided on the basis of caste, religion and language. Now, they are dividing Indian vs. Indian. And to make a comment like Indians are like Chinese, isn't it a racist comment?... Isn't it an insulting and objectionable comment? It shows that 'Congress ki Mohabbat ki Dukan actually has Nafrat and Racism ka Saman'," he said.

BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad also criticised Pitroda's comments and said, "It becomes clear again and again that what does Sam Pitroda understand about India. It is clear that he is a failure. He doesn't understand the country. He is Rahul Gandhi's advisor. I can now understand why Rahul Gandhi speaks nonsense...This is the frustration of defeat. They neither understand India nor its heritage."

Who is Sam Pitroda? Education, profession, Gandhi link and controversies
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Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda has again ignited a firestorm speaking on the diversity of India referring to how people in the South "look like Africans and those in the East looks like Arabs and those in the East look like Chinese." Speaking about how India is a shining example of democracy in the world, Pitroda said in an interview that the people of the country have "survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together leaving a few fights here and there". The comments have not really settled with a lot of Indians, who have said that the comments were extremely racist. The Congress has dissociated itself from his remarks, while the BJP has trained guns on the party with Manipur CM N Biren Singh even threatening to sue Pitroda.

Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda has again ignited a firestorm speaking on the diversity of India referring to how people in the South "look like Africans and those in the East looks ..
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Pitroda is the head of the Indian Overseas Congress, an organisation of "concerned, committed, diverse, capable, and courageous Overseas Indians and Friends of India," which is the foreign wing of the Congress party.


He is a "globally-respected telecom entrepreneur, investor, development thinker, and policy maker," according to his personal website. The website states that he has worked in the IT industry for fifty years.

Pitroda is the head of the Indian Overseas Congress, an organisation of "concerned, committed, diverse, capable, and courageous Overseas Indians and Friends of India," which is the foreign wing of th..
Read More

Sam Pitroda was born in Odisha to Gujarati parents. He graduated from Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujarat for his elementary education, and Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara is where he earned his master's degree in physics and electronics. In 1964, having completed his master's degree in physics, he travelled to the United States to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to earn a master's degree in electrical engineering. According to his website, Pitroda holds around 20 honourary PhDs, close to 100 worldwide patents, and has published five books and numerous papers and lectured widely all over the world.

Sam Pitroda was born in Odisha to Gujarati parents. He graduated from Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujarat for his elementary education, and Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara is where he earned his..
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Pitroda currently serves as the chairman of Indian Overseas Congress, He is credited with having laid the foundation for India’s telecommunications and technology revolution of the 1980s. He was an advisor to former PM Rajiv Gandhi and led six technology missions related to telecommunications, water, literacy, immunisation, dairy production, and oil seeds. Pitroda returned to India a second time in 2004 to focus on building knowledge institutions and infrastructure. He worked with three PMs of India, including Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. He is often called Rahul Gandhi's mentor, and works closely with him.

Pitroda currently serves as the chairman of Indian Overseas Congress, He is credited with having laid the foundation for India’s telecommunications and technology revolution of the 1980s. He was an a..
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Pitroda sparked a controversy in May 2019 during the previous Lok Sabha elections when he casually dismissed the 1984 riots. “Ab kya hai ’84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye. ’84 mein hua to hua. Aapne kya kiya? (Is there anything to say about 1984 now? Talk about what you did in the last 5 years. What happened in 1984 happened. But what have you achieved?),” he had said. More recently, he was in the middle of another controversy while speaking about the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in America and said these are issued that will need to be discussed. After the comments snowballed into a controversy Pitroda sought to downplay the issue saying he had only cited inheritance tax in the US as an example.

Pitroda sparked a controversy in May 2019 during the previous Lok Sabha elections when he casually dismissed the 1984 riots. “Ab kya hai ’84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye. ’84 mein..
Read More
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