Thackeray represents lunatic fringe of Indian politics: Cong

New Delhi, Oct 22 (UNI) The Congress today deplored the ''outpourings of hatred'' against its President Sonia Gandhi by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and said they both represented the forces of intolerance and fascism in the country.

Describing the Shiv Sena as an ''imbalanced political entity'', Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said persons like Mr Thackeray and their parties ''represent the lunatic fringe of Indian politics''.

''Their remarks are condemnable, despicable, and deplorable,'' Mr Singhvi told reporters.

Mr Thackeray, he said, behaves like a leader but has no party left. He is searching amid the wrecks and ruins of his rank and file.

''He has been punished by courts and rejected by the people but some persons never learn the lessons of history.'' As for Mr Modi, he said the BJP leader had been rejected even by his own partymen and was the ''embodiment of intolerance and demagoguery''.

''He cannot even stand his own partymen and walks out of media interactions instead of engaging in discourse,'' Mr Singhvi said, referring to Mr Modi's walk-out from a TV channel interview after it was suggested to him that he apologise for the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat.

''What he cannot ignore he is alleged to liquidate, as is clear from serious allegations regarding his own former Home Minister's death,'' the Congress spokesman said.

''Such parties only believe in the politics of hate, the divisive approach and the idiom of hatred. Each time they have done so, the Congress President and the PM have emerged stronger,'' he said.

''Such imbalanced outbursts come from the Neros of Indian politics who fiddle and shout insults while their parties and their States burn. They deserve to be noticed only because they represent the worst of Indian politics and teach us what not to be and what not to do,'' he added.

UNI