'Kalia Kumaraswamy': Congress' Zameer Ahmed's Racial Slur Against HDK Stokes Fresh Row

Bengaluru: Congress stoked a fresh controversy on Monday, November 11, after its leader and minister Zameer Ahmed hurled racial slur against Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy by calling him “Kalia Kumaraswamy”. Congress minister Ahmed called HDK "Kalia" (dark skinned) while addressing a gathering.

This is latest in the series of racial slurs hurled by Congress leaders. Ahmed's skin-colour based remarks has drawn wide criticism.

Who is Zameer Ahmed?

Zameer Ahmed is a member of CM Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka Cabinet. A 5-time MLA from Chamrajpet Constituency, he holds the crucial Minority affairs portofolio.

While speaking exclusively with Republic Media Network, activist Brinda Adige demanded Ahmed's public apology for making the remarks against the Union Minister. She hoped party action against him.

Congress' Sam Pitroda's Racial Slur 

Earlier, Sam Pitroda, Indian Overseas Congress chief, triggered a massive political row by describing how people in the South “look like Africans and those in the East look like Arabs and those in the East look like Chinese.” 

Pitroda landed the Congress party in a soup in May with his choice of ethnic and racial identities like Chinese, Arabs, Whites and Africans to describe how Indians from different parts of the country look like.

“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”, the advisor to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had insinuated during a podcast. 

“It does not matter. All of us are brothers and sisters. We respect different languages, different religions, different customs, different food,” he further said.

As his remarks went viral and triggered a political firestorm, the Congress – swiftly, yet conveniently – distanced itself from his words while criticising those as "most unfortunate and unacceptable".