New Delhi: Two days Sonia Gandhi released her memoir, in which she launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies, Indian Overseas Congress chairman Sam Pitroda has heaped praise on the PM, describing him as a warm, kind and caring person with whom he shares a cordial personal relationship.
In an interview with news agency IANS, Pitroda described Modi as a “Gujarati friend” and said he respected him as a person. “He is a Gujarati friend. I respect him as a person. I met him. My wife and I met him. He’s been very warm, very kind, very loving, caring at a personal level. Of course, he’s a good orator, hard-working, okay. We get along well.”
He added: “We have no personal issues. I have nothing against Mr Modi as a Gujarati leader, friend, and well-wisher. He’s very warm to me. No issues about that. I appreciate that.”
Pitroda also recalled visiting Modi’s house in Gujarat several times, saying his disagreements with the PM were ideological and not personal. “I may have issues with his views of the world. I may have issues with his ideology. But that’s a separate issue; that’s not against the individual. It’s against the idea. And these are two separate things. You know, I can disagree with Mr Modi, and I can also have dinner with him and have a laugh. So I have no issues,” he told IANS.
Modi responded warmly to Pitroda’s remarks, addressing him as “Sam Bhai” and extending Diwali and Gujarati New Year greetings to him and his wife, Anjana.
“Happy Diwali and Nutan Varsh Abhinandan to you Sam Bhai and to Anjana Ben. Praying for a joyful and healthy year ahead. Jai Jagannath!” the Prime Minister wrote on X quoting the IANS interview.
In her memoir, ‘Belonging: A journey of love’, Sonia has described her ideological differences with PM Modi, writing that his idea of India was vastly different from hers.
“We come from different ideological worlds; his idea of this country is vastly different from mine,” she writes.
She also describes their limited interactions, saying that they exchange a formal ‘namaste’ when they come face-to-face at official gatherings, but that PM Modi tends to look away and avoid eye contact.
This is not the first time Pitroda has praised Modi.
In June 2023, while accompanying Rahul Gandhi on his US visit, Pitroda had praised the reception Modi was receiving ahead of his state visit to Washington. His remarks came even as Rahul was using the tour to attack the Modi government and present the Congress’s alternative vision for India.
Speaking to PTI, Pitroda said he was happy that the Prime Minister was receiving a warm reception in the US, adding that Modi deserved respect as the leader of the world’s most populous country.
“Someone told me that the Indian Prime Minister is getting a lot of reception. And I said I’m happy about it because, at the end of the day, he’s also my prime minister. But let’s not make a mistake. He’s getting reception because he’s India’s prime minister. And not because he’s BJP’s prime minister. Separate these two things,” he had said. “A prime minister of a nation of 1.5 billion people deserves respect everywhere. And I’m proud of it. I’m not negative about it.”
In April 2024, during the Lok Sabha election campaign, Pitroda triggered a controversy with his remarks on inheritance tax in the US, describing the system as an “interesting law” and suggesting that such a model deserved discussion in India. “If one has $100 million worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer probably 45 percent to his children, 55 percent is grabbed by the government. That’s an interesting law. It says you in your generation made wealth and you are leaving now, you must leave your wealth for the public, not all of it, half of it, which to me sounds fair,” he said.
Modi had targeted Pitroda soon after, saying, “An adviser to the royal family’s prince and his father had earlier said that more taxes should be imposed on the middle class. Now, they have gone a step further. The Congress says it will also impose inheritance tax…or tax the inheritance received from parents.”
Pitroda again landed in controversy in May 2024, after comparing the physical appearances of people from different parts of India to different ethnic groups while speaking about the country’s diversity. “We could hold together a country as diverse as India — where people on East look like Chinese, people on West look like Arab, people on North look like maybe White and people in South look like Africans. It doesn’t matter. We are all brothers and sisters,” he had said in an interview with The Statesman.
The Congress termed the remarks “most unfortunate and unacceptable” and said it completely dissociated itself from the analogies. Pitroda subsequently stepped down as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, but was reinstated in June 2024.
In February 2025, Pitroda’s remarks on China again prompted the Congress to distance itself from him.
He further questioned India’s approach towards Beijing, he said it was unfair to consider China an enemy from the outset and called for greater engagement between the two countries. “I don’t know what the threat from China is. It is always blown out of proportion because the US has the habit of defining an enemy,” he told IANS.
“Our attitude has been one of confrontation from day one. That attitude creates an enemy and generates certain support in the country. I think we need to change that pattern. To assume China is an enemy from day one is not fair — not just to China, but to anyone,” he said.
The Congress’s response was swift. General secretary Jairam Ramesh said Pitroda’s views were “most definitely NOT” those of the party.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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