"Congress is directionless": BJP's Piyush Goyal slams Sam Pitroda's 'racial' slur

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 8 (ANI): Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Piyush Goyal on Wednesday hit back at Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress, Sam Pitroda over his 'racist' remarks about how people in the South "look like Africans and those in the East look like Arabs and those in the East look like Chinese" and said that the Congress is directionless.
"Congress is directionless. They cannot do anything except break the country. They neither have a leader nor leadership. This time Congress will be left with half the seats as compared to last time. In such a situation, it has nothing else to do except give such controversial statements," Goyal said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, whose party is in alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra, said that she does not agree with Pitroda's statement.
"I do not agree with his statement. But, is he a member of the manifesto committee, a star campaigner of Congress, and does he reside in this country? He lives abroad. It's unfortunate to make his issues the country's issue. On one side it's the issues of the people and on the other side, what Sam Pitroda is saying from America. We have nothing to do with that, neither it's an issue, nor this country would want to react to what he says," she said.
Pitroda had earlier courted controversy when he had advocated an inheritance tax-like law in the country and his 'racial' slur has sparked another controversy for the Congress.
Pitroda has again ignited a firestorm by speaking on the diversity of India referring to how people in the South "look like Africans and those in the East look like Arabs and those in the East look like Chinese."
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 on the east look like Chinese, people on the West look like Arab, people on the North look like white and maybe people on the South look like Africans."
He further added that the people of India respect different languages, religions, food and customs which vary from region to region. "That's the India that I believe in, where everybody has a place and everybody compromises a little bit," he said. (ANI)