Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday extended Diwali and Gujarati New Year greetings to Sam Pitroda and his wife, in response to the Indian Overseas Congress chief calling him a “Gujarati friend” with whom he shared a warm relationship.

Modi’s surprise gesture towards a man considered close to the Nehru-Gandhi family — interpreted widely as a political manoeuvre against the Congress — comes soon after Sonia Gandhi in her memoir claimed “no real contact” with the Prime Minister.

Sonia wrote that Modi tends to “look away, avoiding eye contact” when they come face to face in Parliament.

“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 on Thursday, replying to a video in which Pitroda is seen speaking cordially of him.

Many in Delhi’s political circles attributed Pitroda’s remarks to a possible feeling of pique at the absence of any acknowledgement of his long association with the Nehru-Gandhi family in Sonia’s recently published memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love.

“He is a Gujarati friend. I respect him as a person,” Pitroda, 84, had said about Modi in an interview with news agency IANS. “Of course, he is a good orator and hardworking, and we get along well. We have no personal issues.”

Pitroda went on to recall his several visits to Modi’s home in Gujarat, saying he and his wife had been met with warmth and affection. “My wife and I have met him. He has been very warm, kind, loving and caring at a personal level,” he said.

Pitroda seemed to gloss over his political differences with Modi. “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,” he said.

The Congress had till Thursday evening not reacted officially to Pitroda’s remarks, which seemed to have come out of the blue.

Pitroda had hardly ever spoken positively of Modi before. Rather, Modi had picked on some loose comments by the telecom pioneer to attack the Congress.

In May 2024, the Congress was forced to distance itself from Pitroda and announce his resignation as Indian Overseas Congress chairman after the Prime Minister accused him of being a “racist”. Pitroda was, however, reinstated a few weeks later.

Pitroda had in a podcast said that people in eastern India looked like the Chinese, while those in the south resembled Africans. Describing him as the “friend, philosopher and guide of the Congress Crown Prince”, Modi had accused the Opposition party of insulting Indians, forcing it on the back foot.

Pitroda has been associated with the Nehru-Gandhis since the mid-1980s when then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi made him the head of the Telecom Commission. The tech wizard was widely credited with overseeing the telecom revolution under Rajiv.

In recent years, Pitroda emerged as a mentor to Rahul Gandhi. He has helped organise the Congress MP’s overseas engagements, including his upcoming visits to Columbia University and the University of Chicago in the US.