INOC attacks anti-Sonia ad

NEW YORK: Sharply attacking the full-page anti-Sonia advertisement published in the New York Times on October six, the Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC) has said it raises the question whether the paper broke its own internal standards of refraining from accepting ads involving 'defamatory personal attacks.'
    
In a letter sent to Times, INOC President Surinder S Malhotra said the ad was in poor taste, full of false, malicious and demeaning statements attacking Congress
President Sonia Gandhi in a 'very personal way' and paid for by a "fringe group of extreme Hindu nationalists who have found refuge in this country and whose campaigns work to undermine the democratic and pluralistic framework of India."
   
The letter was released by INOC and has not been published in the Times so far. The advertisement was taken out by Gandhi Heritage Foundation which also had held a demonstration on October 2, the day Sonia addressed the United Nations General Assembly which was observing Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary as International Day of Non-Violence.