New Delhi: After raking up her foreign origins, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today (April 5, 2004) attacked Congress president Sonia Gandhi's "competence" for the Prime Ministerial post saying "she has never been able to speak in Parliament without a written text".

"During her four and a half years as Member of Parliament, she has never been able to speak in Parliament without a written text. Without a written speech, she has been neither able to speak in Hindi or English. I am only challenging the competence of a person," party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters.

He said in the Lok Sabha members were allowed to read from written text for their maiden speech in the House but it cannot be so for all speeches.

"Of course, out of courtesy, it was overlooked in the case of the Congress president," he added.