NEW DELHI, Feb 10: The US envoy to India was embroiled in a new row after he objected to a communist leader calling President George W. Bush the leader of a “pack of killers,” a report said Friday.

Ambassador David Mulford, already under attack from India’s powerful leftists over recent remarks, drew fresh fire after writing a protest letter to the head of Marxist-ruled West Bengal state about his comments on Bush, The Indian Express said.

West Bengal’s chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee riposted with a “strong letter” to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying the envoy breached protocol by writing directly to a state government, the newspaper said.

The support of the communist parties, which have accused Mulford of “directly interfering” in India’s affairs, is vital to the minority Congress government’s survival in the national parliament.

Bhattacharjee called Bush the leader of the “most organised pack of killers in the world” at a rally last month where he also accused the Congress government of pursuing a pro-US foreign policy.

The Indian Express said Mulford told Bhattacharjee in his letter that the eastern state of West Bengal was a key foreign investment destination and such remarks could be detrimental—AFP