Senior Congress leader Sam Pitroda has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an extremely hard-working man and a good orator, saying the two share a warm personal relationship despite their political differences. Pitroda, who heads the Indian Overseas Congress, made the remarks in an interview reported by the news agency IANS, and a video of the comments was later posted on X.
Pitroda said that he and his wife have met Modi personally and described the prime minister as a Gujarati friend and well-wisher. He added that he has visited Modi's home in Gujarat several times. Pitroda's account places the relationship on a personal footing that, in his telling, has continued across the years in which the two have stood on opposite sides of national politics. He presented the friendship as an ordinary human connection rather than a political alignment.
The central point of Pitroda's remarks was the distinction he drew between the man and the political philosophy he associates with him. He said that his disagreement is with Modi's ideology rather than with the individual himself. In his framing, personal ties can remain good even when political opposition is sharp, and the two categories can be kept apart without one undermining the other. It is this separation that gives the comments their significance in a political environment where personal and partisan positions are often read as one.
The comments drew attention in political circles, given the sharp rivalry between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party that Modi leads. Modi himself responded publicly, sending Diwali and New Year greetings to Pitroda and his wife, and wishing them a joyful and healthy year ahead. The exchange of greetings added a personal note to a moment that otherwise centred on the broader political debate, and it mirrored the cordiality Pitroda had described.
No official reaction from the Congress party to Pitroda's remarks has been reported, and the notes available for this report do not record any formal response from the party's leadership. The statements have nonetheless prompted discussion about the relationship between personal regard and political opposition in Indian public life. Pitroda's position is that the two are separate matters, and that a disagreement over ideas need not extend into a breakdown of personal goodwill.