Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday seized on another contentious comment by Sam Pitroda on the diverse skin colours of Indians to accuse the Congress of being “racist” and of “insulting Indians”.

As Pitroda’s remarks raised a howl of protest from Modi and a host of BJP leaders, the Congress scurried for cover, promptly dissociating itself from the comments. In the evening, the party announced Pitroda’s resignation as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress.

“Mr Sam Pitroda has decided to step down as chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress of his own accord. The Congress president has accepted his decision,” Congress’s media in-charge Jairam Ramesh announced on X.

Pitroda stirred the latest controversy while describing India’s diversity in a podcast. “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,” Pitroda said in the podcast, adding: “It does not matter. All of us are brothers and sisters.”

Less than a month ago, Pitroda’s comments on inheritance tax in the US had led Modi to accuse the Congress of planning to impose such a levy in India if they came to power.

Modi latched on to Pitroda’s latest remark and played it out at his election rallies. Describing Pitroda as a “friend, philosopher and guide of the Congress’s Crown Prince”, Modi linked the comment to the Congress’s opposition to the selection of President Droupadi Murmu.

He said he has now understood why the Congress had opposed and tried to defeat the NDA’s presidential nominee, stressing that it was because the tribal woman’s “skin colour is dark”.

“I can tolerate it when abuses are hurled at me, but not when they are hurled at my people. Can we decide a person’s merit based on skin colour?” Modi said at a rally in Telengana’s Warangal.

The Prime Minister went on to introduce a religious element into the controversy. “No matter what the colour of one’s skin is, we are the people who worship Lord Krishna (believed to be dark-skinned). I am very angry today. The people who keep the Constitution above their heads are insulting people on the basis of their skin colour,” Modi said.

“Who permitted shehzada to look down on my people like that? We will not accept this racist mentality,” he added.

At another rally in Andhra Pradesh’s Rajampet, Modi asked whether Pitroda’s remarks were acceptable to Congress chief ministers of south Indian states such as Karnataka and Telangana and the DMK’s M.K. Stalin. He dared Stalin to sever ties with the Congress over the “insulting” remark.

“They (the Congress) think people of the Northeast look like Chinese, south Indians look like Africans. I want to ask — will the people accept comments like this? I want to ask Siddaramaiah — is this okay? I want to ask the Telangana chief minister if he would accept,” Modi said.

“The chief minister of Tamil Nadu, who talks of Tamil culture, will DMK have the courage to cut ties with the Congress for the sake of Tamil culture and heritage?” Modi asked, accusing the Congress of a “divisive” mindset that wanted “to see the country in pieces”.