New Delhi: The Congress Sunday reacted strongly to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari's comparison of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with Mahatma Gandhi, saying it was a reflection of "collective senility" that has gripped the saffron party.
"It is evidence of the collective senility that has gripped the BJP," Congress spokesman Manish Tewari told a news agency.
Tewari said "by comparing (Slobodan) Milosevic of Gujarat to the great Mahatma, his assassins have added insult to the injury."
Milosevic, a former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia, was charged with crimes against humanity.
Gadkari had Saturday compared Modi's policies of alleviating poverty with the ideology of Gandhi and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, a BJP ideologue.
Speaking at Porbandar, which is Gandhi's birthplace, the BJP president said the two leaders thought that alleviating poverty should be the end of all politics and Modi was working to achieve the same goal.
However, speaking in Bangalore Sunday, Gadkari denied making any comparison between Gandhi and Modi.
Gadkari said his speech was on record and he "did not compare" the Gujarat chief minister with Gandhi.
IANS
First Published: Sunday, January 31, 2010, 14:03