Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on X decision.
Earlier in the day, Pitroda sparked controversy in an interview when he compared Indians from different parts of the country to Chinese, Arabs, whites and Africans while talking about India’s diversity and democracy. …we can unite a country as diverse as India, where people from the east look like Chinese, people from the west look like Arabs, people from the north look like white people, and people from the south look like Africans , it doesn’t matter, we are all Africans.
Shortly after the clip of the remarks went viral on social media, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at Sam Pitroda at a rally in Telangana. “I’m very angry today… I’m very angry about what Sam Pitroda said.” “We will not accept this racist mentality”, the Prime Minister added. The prime minister also linked Pitroda’s statement to Congress’ decision to field a candidate to contest the 2022 presidential election against Droupadi Murmu.
Racist remarks: PM Modi slams ‘Shehzad’s philosopher’ Sam Pitroda
Pitroda has made controversial statements in the past that have drawn the wrath of the opposition and the public.
While awaiting the inauguration of the Rama temple in June 2023, Sam Pitroda claimed that building temples will not solve the serious challenges facing India, highlighting unemployment, rising prices, education issues and social issues and other pressing issues.
Sam Pitroda sparked another debate when discussing the concept of estate tax in the United States. He explained: “In the United States, there is an estate tax. If a person has a fortune of $100 million, when he dies, he can only transfer 45% to his children and 55% is taken away by the government. This is a Interesting law it says, your generation created the wealth and now you’re leaving, you have to leave your wealth to the public, not all, but half, which sounds fair to me what his remarks triggered. Controversial because he cited only the United States as an example. Pitroda’s remarks led to the BJP and Prime Minister Modi attacking Congress over the issue of “wealth redistribution.”
Another incident involving Pitroda happened after the Pulwama attack in February 2019. As he said, “I don’t know much about the attacks. This kind of thing happens. There were attacks in Mumbai too. We could have responded.” And sending planes, but that’s not the right thing to do, in my opinion, that’s not the way you treat the world,” Pitroda said.
In May 2019, Pitroda sparked another controversy with his disparaging remark “So what” while responding to a question about former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. His comments quickly sparked an uproar. Pitroda said: “Ab kya hai ’84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye.”
In early 2024, Sam Pitroda also faced backlash from the BJP after he shared an article written by Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former close aide of prominent BJP leader LK Advani. The article believes that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru played a more important role in the formulation of the Indian Constitution than BR Ambedkar. Pitroda’s support prompted the BJP to criticize the Congress and accuse it of being “anti-Dalit”.
