Kangana Ranaut is the latest BJP leader to comment on Congress leader Sam Pitroda’s controversial remarks on the appearance of Indians. Pitroda sparked a row by claiming that people in eastern India looked like Chinese, while people in southern India looked like Africans. (Also read: Sam Pitroda sparks controversy over ‘Orientals look like Chinese’ remark, BJP responds)
Kangana’s satire on Pitroda
Kangana, who is contesting the Lok Sabha elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket from Mandi, took to Instagram Stories to respond to the controversy. “Uncle Sam in Congress said that South Indians look like Africans, East/Northeast Indians look like Chinese, people from Gujarat region look like Arabs and people from the North look like white people, I wonder where Uncle Sam belongs in India because he looked more like a bird than a human being.”
She added that Indians look dark because they look like their ancestors. “Shyam means black, Lord Rama is the darkest color of black, Arjun is black, Draupadi is the blackest of them all and she is the most gorgeous and stunning woman who ever lived. Krishna named her Given her name, he always affectionately called her “Krishna” IPr. When the Nippur woman got married, he married a Sanatani princess named Chitragada instead of a Chinese looking girl who looked perfect from Gujarat and Maharashtra. Indians, northerners too, 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?
“We’ve lived for 75 years in a very happy environment where people can live together, except for a few fights here and there,” Indian Overseas Congress president Pitroda said in a podcast.
“We can bring a country as diverse as India together. People in the east look like Chinese, people in the west look like Arabs, people in the north look like whites and people in the south look like Africans It doesn’t matter, we are all brothers and sisters. We respect different languages, different religions, different customs, different foods,” Pitroda said in the interview that was widely circulated on social media.
BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also reacted to Pitroda’s remarks. “In my country, will people’s abilities be determined based on their skin color?” Modi asked. “Who allowed ‘shehzada’ to play this color game,” he asked.