Congress finds itself in a tight spot over the Italian marine incident

Realizing the nation’s mood on terror related activities, Manmohan Singh has voiced his concern over Italy’s refusal to hand over the two naval guards who are currently facing trial over killing of fisherman in Indian waters. Manmohan Singh has called the decision as unacceptable and has decided to take up the matter in true earnest.

Manmohan Singh has told his left allies that he will ask the external affairs minister Salman Khurshid to take up the matter further with Italy. Two Italian naval guards namely Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone have been accused of killing two Indian fishermen and were being tried in India for the offence.

The Italian guards were allowed by the Supreme Court to visit Italy for a period of four weeks. This was done so as to enable them to cast their votes in the general election. India had little reason to believe that the Italian guards will never turn up as they had come back earlier too. Prior to this incident, the Italian guards were allowed to go home for Christmas vacations and they had come back on expiry of their due days.

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The foundation for initiation of current embargo were laid on January 18th when the apex court had turned down the Italian government’s plea that the Indian government had no jurisdiction in the case. The Indian court had ruled that the two be tried under Indian law by constituting a special court for conducting of the trial.

The Kerala chief minister too has not taken the current Italian action kindly and has decided to complaint to the central government over the killing incident that took place last February. As per sources, the chief minister has decided to write to Prime Minister over the new challenge that has come across by Italy’s decision of not handing over the marines to Indian government.

Oommen Chandy who is scheduled to leave for New Delhi on Tuesday will try to meet the central leadership and Prime Minister too to suggest taking tough action against Italy for acting in an irresponsive manner and not allowing the naval marines to come back to India.

Opposition parties are too desirous of making the best of the occasion and have started making noises. CPM and BJP has blamed the centre government for the current embargo and has cautioned the government that delaying any such action that amounts to denying justice to the bereaved families will not be accepted.

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CPM Politburo member and a former Kerala home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has alleged some foul play behind this action and sees central and state government acting with a hidden agenda when it comes to furthering the ties between India and Italy.

This current incident has the potential to boil into a major controversy as the opposition parties including BJP will like to link the current incident with the Italian connection of the congress party. BJP has been linking congress to Italy often voicing concerns of Sonia Gandhi’s past and this current incident involving Italian marines has the potential of boiling into a major controversy.

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