HYDERABAD : Bharatiya Janata Party Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai on Wednesday strongly condemned Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda’s ‘racist’ remarks and said that because of this kind of statement that our Prime Minister Modi says that India needs a “Congress mukt Bharat”.
“The Congress mindset and thinking believes that India is a land of invaders and we are descendants of invaders. There is nothing wrong with looking like an African or Chinese. The connotation is that we are descendants of these people, not ‘Bharatiya’. Only the Congress party which has its masters outside the country, only this party can go to the extent where it can call us descendants of invaders. This is not only strongly condemnable, it is also not only feeling disgusting to us, but it also shows the mindset of Congress, and this is why our PM says we need a Congress-mukt Bharat,” Annamalai said.
He also asserted that in the 2024 elections, it is important to reject Congress.
DMK leader TKS Elangovan also emphasized that racially, we (countrymen) have never differentiated the people of India.
“We are all together even though there are many religions, cultures, languages. Racially we have never differentiated the people of India. This is unwarranted and we are not for it. This (remark) is not ours, we talk about linguistic and cultural equality and that people living in all the states should treated equally. Ultimately what he said is that we are all together, maybe he could not explain it properly,” Elangovan said.
#WATCH | On Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda's controversial "People in East look like Chinese, in South, look like Africans…" remark, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai says, "The Congress mindset and thinking believes that India is a land of invaders and we are… pic.twitter.com/3CpGcEmd5c
— ANI (@ANI) May 8, 2024
Pitroda has stirred controversy after remarking that Indians in the East resemble the Chinese while those in the South look like Africans.
Pitroda, in an interview with ‘The Statesman’, while reflecting upon the democracy in India said, “We have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside few fights here and there. We could hold a country together as diverse as India, where people in the East look like Chinese, people in the West look like Arab, people in the North look like white and maybe people in the South look like Africans.”
Earlier, following Congress leader Sam Pitroda’s “racist remarks” that stoked a massive row, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the people of the country will not tolerate insults based on the colour of their skin.
‘Shehzade aapko jawaab dena padega’. My country will not tolerate the disrespect of my countrymen based on their skin colour and Modi will never tolerate this…” he said.
PM Modi said, “I was thinking a lot that (President) Droupadi Murmu who has a very good reputation and is the daughter of an Adivasi family, then why is Congress trying so hard to defeat her but today I got to know the reason. 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.” (ANI)