Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress has always been in the news headlines for his controversial statements. In the latest, Sam Pitroda stated on Monday that the communist-run country, China is not ‘our enemy’. He claimed, “I don’t know what is the threat from China. I think there is always this thing blown out of (at times) proportion.”
Sam Pitroda blamed the United States for making a perception of China. He blamed India for having an attitude of confrontation towards the Communist regime. Pitroda added, “Our attitude is that of confrontation from day one and that attitude creates enemy and that creates certain support in the country. I think we need to change that pattern”. The Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress said, “To assume that China is the enemy from day one is just not fair, not just to China but to anybody”.
He continued to appreciate China. Sam Pitroda concluded, “I think it is time for us to learn to increase communication, collaborate, cooperate and co-create and not have this command and control mindset. China is around, China is growing.” Earlier Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has expressed his admiration for China on various occasions. In March 2023, in his controversial speech at Cambridge Judge Business School, Rahul Gandhi appreciated China as an ‘aspiring superpower’ and ‘force of nature’. He further alleged that China harbours ‘social harmony’.
He had also lauded China’s controversial and predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In 20222, during a conversation with The Print columnist Shruti Kapila, Rahul Gandhi praised the Belt and Road Initiative and claimed that China wanted the countries around it to prosper. During his tour to Ladakh in 2023, Rahul Gandhi claimed that China had grabbed India’s land in Ladakh. However, Gandhi during his UK visit in May 2022 had asserted that “Ladakh is to China what Ukraine is to Russia.”
Back in 2020, details about the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation’s (RGF) monetary operations emerged. During UPA1, in 2008 the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Congress party signed an agreement for the sharing of high-level information and collaboration. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) also provided the two parties with the opportunity to consult each other on important bilateral, regional and international developments.
The Congress party had signed an MoU with the Chinese government, and Rahul Gandhi had met secretly the Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui in 2017 during the Doklam standoff. He even secretly met Chinese ministers in September 2018 during his Kailash Mansarovar visit. The statements and stances of Congress politicians are quite controversial which shows their anti-India mindsets.
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