Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday reappointed Sam Pitroda as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, days after he had resigned from the post following some controversial remarks in the middle of Lok Sabha elections which the BJP termed as “racist”.“Congress president has reappointed Sam Pitroda as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress with immediate effect,” AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said in a statement.
Pitroda, who is considered a close aide of Rahul Gandhi, resigned from the post on May 8, and his resignation was accepted by the Congress chief.
Pitroda, who held the post of chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, stoked a major controversy with his remarks during a podcast where he cited ethnic and racial identities like Chinese, Africans, Arabs and Whites to describe the physical appearance of Indians from different parts of the country.
The veteran leader was an advisor to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and has been closely associated with Rahul Gandhi, accompanying him during his foreign visits. Pitroda has also arranged several interactions of Gandhi with students of foreign universities in the UK, the UAE and the US.
The BJP made Pitroda’s remarks a poll issue, forcing the Congress to act swiftly and distance itself from his remarks, calling them “most unfortunate and unacceptable”.