Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Jan. 12: Sharad Pawar’s party today hit out at Rahul Gandhi and made references to the “Italian” coalition system and then sought to calm tempers but not before betraying the raw nerves over price rise and many other points of friction that have been building up.

The dust-up over Rahul’s alleged comments on coalition politics and price rise — which the Congress said were misconstrued — proved how a student sitting in some corner of the country can send the UPA combine in a tizzy.

The fragility of egos was in display when the NCP spokesperson launched a scathing attack on the Congress leadership following reports that Rahul Gandhi had blamed “coalition compulsions” for high inflation.

The Congress promptly denied the content of the reports, saying it was based on misreporting by college students who were present at the Uttar Pradesh interaction with Rahul who never made any such observation.

As a seething NCP allowed its spokesperson D.P. Tripathi to spit venom at both Sonia and Rahul, Congress spokesperson Abhisek Singhvi responded within an hour. “The media was not allowed at the closed-door function. Rahul never blamed coalition compulsions for price rise. At no point, did he refer to the NCP or Sharad Pawar.”

Congress sources said Rahul only listed the steps taken by the Centre and required to be taken by the states in the context of price rise. Then, responding to a general question on the plight of the current Congress in comparison with Indira Gandhi’s regime, he talked of coalition compulsions.

By that time, the NCP spokesperson had thrown punches left and right, asking the Congress to learn from “the Italian experience” in how to run a coalition. Although Tripathi himself pointed out that 65 countries in the world ran coalition governments, he chose the Italian metaphor to hit the Congress in a sensitive spot.

NCP leader Praful Patel later tried to control the damage by saying that Tripathi’s comments were blown out of context. Patel said Rahul was not speaking in the context of the present coalition and did not criticise any party.