Congress furious as Modi says he\'ll write to govt in Italian

NEW DELHI : The Sonia Gandhi vs Narendra Modi `battle\' resurfaced on Friday when the Gujarat chief minister raked up references to her Italian roots provoking a livid Congress to say that he had gone \"senile\".

Modi, who has been lying low since the Lok Sabha defeat, stirred political waters when he told a gathering in Gujarat that he would write to the Centre in Italian as his previous letters seeking control on prices had not yielded results.

Speaking at a Garib Kalyan Mela at Patan, Modi said, \"I have written a number of letters to central government... in the language they can understand urging them to take steps, to do something about the rising prices of food items. But, I think they have no sympathy for the poor people... now, I need to write a letter in Italian.\"

The barely disguised Modi bid to retrain focus on Congress chief\'s \"foreign origin\" drew a sharp reaction.

AICC spokesman Manish Tiwari said, \"Modi sathiya gaye hain (Modi has gone senile). You can only expect such preposterous rhetoric from an uncivilised person. I would not even want to dignify such comments by reacting to them.\"

The sharp reaction reflected the anger in Congress camp which has to contend with Modi\'s style of using Sonia\'s Italian origin to make a political point. They had run-ins during 2008 Gujarat assembly polls though there has been a long silence before erupting again on Friday.

Congress plans to project Modi\'s unbridled offensive as symptomatic of a weakening saffron central leadership losing control over its chief ministers. \"Atal Bihari Vajpayee had publicly upbraided Pramod Mahajan for his uncivil references to Congress chief. But now the leadership cannot even do it,\" Tiwari said.
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