BJP rakes up Tigers’ tale to divide Cong, DMK

Besides personal attacks against Sonia, the BJP also released a letter signed by Congress MPs in 1998 demanding a probe against DMK chief Karunanidhi for his party’s alleged links with the LTTE.

Addressing a meeting in East Delhi today, Narendra Modi returned to his favourite pastime of Sonia-bashing. Agency reports quoted Modi as saying, ‘‘Even before renting out a house, one asks the background of the tenant. I ask Congressmen, does anyone know about the life of Sonia Gandhi before she married Rajiv?’’ He went on to say: ‘‘If one can’t even rent out a house to her, how can we hand over the reins of the country to her.’’

He also accused Sonia of not being able to recite Vande Mataram and accused Congress of replacing it with ‘‘Vande Mata-Rome’’. Not stopping at that, he made fun of the Congress’s plight in Bihar and said that next time when he meets RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav he would ask him why he had given four and not five seats to the Congress since ‘‘at least five persons are needed for a funeral procession’’.

In a separate statement, BJP general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Indians did not need to learn patriotism from foreigners. Commenting on Sonia’s speeches questioning the patriotism of BJP leaders and their lack of participation in the freedom struggle, Naqvi said: ‘‘It is ironical that the very person who felt ashamed to accept Indian citizenship and due to political compulsions was forced to accept it after 14 years now speaks of patriotism.’’ The BJP general secretary also released the Congress letter against the DMK to disprove Congress claims that it had withdrawn allegations against DMK after the final report of Jain Commission that probed the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.

The letter, written in August 1998 to Home Minister L.K. Advani, sought a probe by ‘‘an independent investigative agency’’ to look into all matters ‘‘relating to Shri M. Karunanidhi as adverted by the Commission and proceed against him in a court of law, if warranted by the evidence which will be uncovered’’. Its signatories included Manmohan Singh, Arjun Singh, Pranab Mukherjee and Mani Shankar Aiyar among others.