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New Delhi: Tearing into the Congress over its veteran leader Sam Pitroda’s fresh flub, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today demanded a response from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying that the country “won’t tolerate disrespect on the basis of the colour of skin”.
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Mr Pitroda, whose remark on an inheritance tax in the US last month left the Congress red-faced in the election season, came up with a new howler while he was trying to make a pitch for national unity despite India’s diversity. In an exclusive interview with The Statesman, Mr Pitroda described India as a “… diverse country… 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 Africa”.
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Pushed into firefight mode, the Congress distanced itself from its senior leader’s remark. “The analogies drawn by Mr. Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate India’s diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable. The Indian National Congress completely dissociates itself from these analogies,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
