PM Modi on Sam Pitroda: In response to controversial remarks made by party leader Sam Pitroda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, claiming that Pitroda’s remarks were a “insult to several people of the country on the basis of their skin color.” Pitroda stirred up controversy earlier in the day when he said that people from South India looked like Africans and people from East India looked like Chinese.
Condemnation of Insults Based on Skin Color
PM Modi said, “I can tolerate it when abuses are hurled at me, but not when they are hurled at my people. Can we decide a person’s merit based on skin colour? No matter what the colour of one’s skin is, we are the people who worship Lord Krishna. I am very angry today. The people who keep the Constitution above their heads are insulting people on the basis of their skin colour.”
“Who permitted ‘shehzaada’ (prince in reference to Rahul Gandhi) to look down on my people like that? ‘Shehzaade’ you will have to answer. We will not accept this racist mentality,” the Prime Minister added.
Highlighting BJP’s Support for Marginalized Communities
During his address PM Modi said, “since President Droupadi Murmu also hails from an ‘Adivasi’ (tribal) family, the Congress tries very hard to defeat her as well.”
“I got to know that there is an ‘uncle’ in America who is the ‘philosopher’ of the ‘shehzaada’. And just like the third umpire in cricket, this ‘shehzaada’ takes his advice from the third umpire,” he said.
“When you gave the BJP a chance in 2014, we gave you a Dalit President, Ram Nath Kovind. Again, in 2019, we gave the country an Adivasi President, Droupadi Murmu,” PM added.
Sam Pitroda Remark
Sam Pitroda stated in an interview with The Statesman newspaper, ” 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.”
“We all respect different languages, different religions, customs and food. That’s the India that I believe in, where everybody has a place and everybody compromises a little bit,” he added.
Defending Diversity
Defending Pitroda, Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav said, “This is the beauty of this country. People of different communities, religions and different geographical conditions live here. I think that is the beauty of it. Together, we form India. This is the beauty of India…BJP ka kaam hai ulta lena.”