Kangana Ranaut is the latest BJP leader to comment on Congress party leader Sam Pitroda’s controversial statement on the looks of Indians. Pitroda’s alleged comments that people in the East in India resembled the Chinese, while those from the South looked like Africans, had kicked up a row. (Also read: Sam Pitroda triggers row with ‘people in East look like Chinese’ remark, BJP reacts)
Kangana’s barbs for Pitroda
Kangana, who is fighting Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket from Mandi, took to Instagram Stories to respond to the controversy. “Congress Uncle Sam said south Indians look like Africans, East/ north east Indians look like Chinese, people from Gujarat belt look like Arabs and people from up north look like white people, I wonder which part of India Uncle Sam belongs to because he looks more like a birdie than human.”
She added that Indians look dark because they look like their ancestors. “Shyam means colour black, Lord Rama was the darkest shade of the black, Arjun was black and Draupadi was the darkest of them all, she was the most gorgeous and the most stunning woman ever. Krishna gave her his name he always called a her ‘Krishna’ lovingly IPr because of her color. Darker people in this nation are like their above mentioned ancestors not like Africans. When Arjuna married a Manipuri woman, he married a sanatani princess called Chitrangada not a Chinese looking girl. People from Gujrat and Maharashtra look perfectly Indians so do up north people, just because your Raja babu is Italian doesn’t mean everyone’s genes are mixed . We are shudh 100% desi Bhartiya,” she wrote.
What did Sam Pitroda say?
In a podcast, Pitroda, the head of the Indian Overseas Congress, said, “We have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside a few fights here and there.”
“We could hold the country as diverse as India together. Where people in the east look like the Chinese, people in the west look like the Arabs, people in the north look like, maybe, white and people in the south look like Africans. It does not matter. All of us are brothers and sisters. We respect different languages, different religions, different customs, different food,” Pitroda said in the interview that was widely circulated on social media.
BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman have also reacted to Pitroda’s comments. Modi asked, “will the ability of people be decided in my country on the basis of skin colour.” “Who gave the permission to ‘shehzada’ for this game of skin colour,” he asked.