A day after Gujarat caretaker Chief Minister Narendra Modi mounted a blistering personal attack on Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the BJP high command endorsed his references to her ‘‘white skin’’ and Italian roots.Party general secretary Rajnath Singh, who flagged off Modi’s Gujarat Gaurav Yatra at Phagvel village in Kheda district of Gujarat yesterday, said: ‘‘What is wrong in calling her Italy ki beti when she is indeed one?’’ On why the BJP had chosen to attack her personally and not the Congress, Rajnath said: ‘‘Congress and Soniaji can not be separated.’’ Cong assails CM remarks NEW DELHI: The Cong on Monday assailed Narendra Modi’s diatribe against party president Sonia Gandhi during the Gaurav Yatra saying it was a campaign of hatred aimed at dividing people on communal lines."Our worst doubts about Modi’s yatra and about the intentions behind it have come true. His is a campaign of hatred focussed with the objective of dividing people on communal lines,” party spokesman Jaipal Reddy said. (PTI) When a journalist sought to know if the BJP had avoided criticising Gujarat Congress president Shankarsinh Vaghela because he was a swayamsewak, he said: ‘‘We don’t think he has the status to merit criticism.’’ Sonia, Rajnath claimed, had aggravated the Gujarat situation. ‘‘We expect her to do politics with restraint and patience. It is all right, she is running a political party. We have no objection. But for her vested interests, she should not tarnish India’s image.’’He said sometimes it appears as though Sonia forgets that India is a secular state, not a theocratic. ‘‘If needed, we can appoint a general secretary to keep reminding her of India being a secular state,’’ he quipped.He claimed that Gujarat’s image had been damaged due to ‘‘a false propaganda’’ over communal violence. He said Godhra and post-Godhra violence was ‘‘shameful, sad and unfortunate.’’ However, what followed was far more shameful, he added, pointing at ‘‘the campaign against Gujarat by vested interests.’’Drawing parallels between the BJP and the Congress over communal violence, he said while Prime Minister Vajpayee directed Modi to follow rajdharma, Rajiv Gandhi had sought to justify the anti-Sikh violence in 1984 by remarking that the earth shakes when a big trees falls.He dismissed the suggestions that Modi should have been asked to step down for having failed to follow rajdharma. He maintained that the sermon of Vajpayee was a sort of re-inforcement just as the parents tend to pontificate even to an obedient son. He asked if any chief minister had been removed after riots. ‘‘Did Jawaharlal Nehru resign after six lakh were killed during communal violence in 1947?’’ he asked.Singh said: ‘‘When only a few huts were burnt in Gujarat, several countries including Germany, Canada and the Pope condemned it.’’ However, no one stirred when 21 churches were burnt in Indonesia during Muslim-Christian violence.
