Congress leader Sam Pitroda has said that his party leader Rahul Gandhi is not a "Pappu", as he was often mocked. The Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress stressed the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha has a vision contrary to what BJP promotes. Pitroda made these remarks while addressing the Indian diaspora in Texas where Rahul Gandhi is visiting.
"Rahul Gandhi's agenda is to address some of the larger issues, he has a vision contrary to what BJP promotes by spending crores and crores of rupees. I must tell you he is not 'Pappu', he is highly educated, he is a strategist with deep thinking on any subject," Pitroda said
Pitroda further noted that Gandhian thoughts of inclusion and diversity were at the core of his own learning. ”Going to school in the early fifties, Gandhian thoughts were the core of our learning. Inclusion, diversity, these were not just the words this is what we lived by and when I begin to see changes in our society which attack the basic fabric I worry about it." he said, adding that Rahul Gandhi is championing those same ideas.
Noting that the former Congres chief’s agenda is to celebrate diversity, Pitroda said, "Rahul Gandhi's agenda is more focused on something that we have been trying to address for a long time but have not been able to quite address well and that is inclusion, celebration of diversity."
Pitroda & Controversies
Sam Pitroda was reappointed as the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress in January this year, weeks after he had to resign from the post following a controversy in the middle of the Lok Sabha election. A close aide of Rahul Gandhi, Pitroda had landed in controversy after 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, during a podcast.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had termed Pitroda’s controversial remarks as “racist”, prompting the Congress leadership to gently nudge him to step down.