Marines row: India-Italy standoff worsens

New Delhi: Under fire from the opposition and the Kerala government for letting the marines “escape,” the central government escalated the on-going dipl o matic spat with Italy over the non-ret urn of two Italian marines. The spat took an ugly turn with PM Manmohan Singh on Wednesday accusing Italy of “violating every rule of diplomatic discourse” and warning it of consequences, alluding to pressing Italy to recall their envoy. The Italian envoy, on the other hand, airily declared on the sidelines of a function here that he would not leave the country until he was declared a persona non grata. And that he would be happy to live in India for “years to come”. Triggering the diplomatic stand-off bet ween India and Italy is the latter’s refusal to ensure that two of its Mari nes – Massi miliano Lattore and Salvatore Girone – allowed to go to their country for four weeks by the SC to cast their vote in their country’s elections, return as per their commitment. The two are accused of gu n ning down two Indian fishermen last year. Expres sing his displeasure with the developments in both houses of Parliament on Wed ne s day, the PM said Italy’s dec ision was “unacceptable”. The PM warned Rome that there will be consequences.