Sam Pitroda: Loose Talker

IT IS INTRIGUING that someone can make a platitude on unity in di­versity and manage to get accused of racism in a country where race has rarely been an issue. Yet, Sam Pitroda managed to pull it off. The statement he made said that Indians in the East resembled the Chinese; in the West, Arabs; in the South, Africans; and in the North, whites; the connection be­ing that despite these multi-continental appearances, everyone got along together. A variety of raw nerves were touched. People from the Northeast, for instance, have for a long time said that the rest of the country taunt them with the slur ‘chinki’, so when Pitroda says that they resemble the Chinese, he was inadvertently reinforcing the racist stereotype. And what does an Arab even look like for western India to be bracketed in that corner? Who exactly in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh did he have in mind when he said that northerners resemble whites? When it comes to the South, it becomes even more paradoxical; if someone from that part is now angry about being compared to an African, then is there also not racism in feel­ing so? All these questions will remain unresolved because Pitroda has now had to resign as head of the Indian Overseas Congress after it became a livewire election issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi onwards picking on it. Even the allies of Congress felt they had to criticise it. His party swiftly distanced itself. Between providing an arsenal to the opposi­tion and Pitroda, it knew where it wanted to stand.

That he should say something like this in the middle of an election tells us that Pitroda’s timing is very off. So is his ability to learn from past mistakes. Once upon a time, in the 1980s, he was known to be part of the Rajiv Gandhi team that set off the telecommunication revolution in India and no one doubts his credentials on that count. Since then, his association with Congress has continued. Like serving as an adviser with a Cabinet rank to the prime minister in the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. But lately, he is mostly been known for saying the wrong things at the wrong time. Just a few weeks ago, he had mooted the idea of an inheritance tax which again became fodder for BJP to attack Congress. Pitroda spoke of how in the US when someone who has $100 million dies, 55 per cent of it goes to the state, and in India, the public gets nothing even if the person had $10 billion. Not just the wealthy, every Indian wants everything he owns to go to his children. To say that the government could take 50 per cent is enough to set alarm bells ringing in even middle-class households. It surprised no one when party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh soon posted on X that Pitroda was free to air his views but didn’t speak for the party.

Pitroda’s core message might be debatable but the phrasing is usually a gift for the opposition. And it is during election time that they dip into this pot. Before the 2019 election, when asked about the pogrom against the Sikhs in 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, he said that whatever happened then happened, and the necessity was to talk about the now. That was enough to once again fuel the issue of Congress involvement in those killings. On another occasion, five years ago, he downplayed the terrorist attack on soldiers in Pulwama as an argument against the Balakot strikes. That didn’t serve too well in the public mind either. Early this year, he shared an article on X that said Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution to the Constitution was greater than Babasaheb Ambedkar’s, embarrassing the Gandhis and leaving the door open for Congress to be accused of being against Dalits.

His association with the Gandhi family turns out to be both good and bad for him. Everything that he says can be imputed to them by association. On the other hand, his long stint as a loyalist means he is never totally cast out either. His current resignation notwithstanding, we can expect him to return to the fold in some form later. The opposition will welcome it.

2024 Elections2024: The CountdownCongresscontroversyGeneral election 2024Indian Overseas CongressSam Pitroda