Even the leaders of the BN-aligned Malaysian Indian Congress party denounced the MP, ostensibly their political ally.

ECONOMIST: Politics in Malaysia

Jaya Partiban, a senator from the Malaysian Indian Congress, the biggest Indian political party, says that the sheltered life of the plantations imbued Indians with a culture of dependence.

ECONOMIST: Malaysia

The power issues spell more trouble for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who heads the Congress Party-led coalition government and was the architect of the 1991 reforms that ended years of Soviet-style economic planning.

WSJ: India Blackouts Show Failure to Lure Investors

Jairam Ramesh, of India's ruling Congress party, blames the difference on the Indian bourgeoisie.

ECONOMIST: China's cup overflows; India catches the spillage

How much Mr Gandhi is able to revive the Congress in the heartland of Indian politics may well determine his - and his party's - future.

BBC: Waiting for Rahul Gandhi

Since she took over as president of the Congress party in the late 1990s, Ms. Gandhi, who became an Indian citizen in 1983, has played down her Italian roots, a politically-sensitive issue in her country of adoption.

WSJ: Italy, India Escalate War of Words

Mr Hollande is expected to hold talks with Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid and will call on Sonia Gandhi, chief of the governing Congress party, as well as Sushma Swaraj, leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

BBC: Manmohan Singh: French fighter jet talks 'going well'