Narendra Modi rakes up Italian Marines issue, slams Sonia Gandhi

GUWAHATI: A day after Sonia Gandhi marked her return to the election season with a noholds-barred attack on the BJP at a rally in Assam, Narendra Modi has hit back, obliquely raising the Congress president’s Italian origins and bringing back the long-dormant foreigner issue squarely into the electoral debate.

Modi used the long festering Italian marines issue to launch a scathing attack on the Congress leader, asking a rally in Assam on Monday at whose behest were the two marines, accused of killing two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast two years ago, allowed to leave India.

Although not explicitly stated, Modi’s charge was interpreted to mean he was suggesting Gandhi’s Italian origins had something to do with the marines leaving the country.

It was after a long time that Modi or any senior BJP leader has used Gandhi’s foreign origins to attack her, and his comments signal an intensification in the strategy of using personal attacks against his opponents as the election battle enters a decisive stage. Modi repeatedly refers to the Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi as shehzada, using a Muslim descriptor for prince.

Returning Gandhi’s jibe from her Sunday rally that “some people were

beating drums of patriotism” directed at the BJP, Modi said the Congress president should not raise a question mark on people’s love for their country.

“Italian soldiers kill our fishermen, they are allowed to go. Is that defending the country’s interest? And you are trying to give us a certificate in patriotism,” Modi said. “Will Sonia Gandhi teach us patriotism? I urge you madam, never question the patriotism of the 1.5 billion Indians in the country.”

Attacking Gandhi, the Gujarat chief minister questioned at whose direction the two Italian marines accused of shooting Indian fishermen off Kerala coast were allowed to leave the country. “Had the Supreme Court not taken a strong stand on the matter, the marines would not have come back,” he said at a campaign rally in Assam, one of four campaign rallies in the north-east that he addressed on Monday.

Modi said that when Italy refused to send the marines back, the Supreme Court restrained the Italian ambassador from leaving the country. Italy later relented and sent the marines back. “Who was running the government in Delhi when the incident took place? Who allowed the marines to go back to their country? Had Supreme Court not intervened Italy would not have sent back the marines to face trial in India. We do not require her certificate to prove our patriotism.”