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NEW DELHIÑIndia's cola wars have turned poisonous.

A pesticide scare has taken the fizz out of the soft drink boom, dousing India's fast-growing market like a summer monsoon.

The furor has spilled out of the science labs and on to the streets.

Hindu nationalists smashed pop bottles and burned cola ads on the streets of Mumbai, Communist officials in Calcutta have condemned the foreign bottlers and Maoist rebels in the far east warned the capitalist cola companies they'd better wind up operations.

Keen to appear on the cutting edge, federal politicians in the capital have replaced cola with buttermilk in the parliamentary restaurant.

With sales plunging 40 per cent last month, Coke and Pepsi have seen the enemy Ñ and it's not the competition.

The traditional rivals have joined forces to declare war on their newest nemesis, a local environmental group that dared accuse them of selling pesticide-laced soda pop.

The Centre for Science and Environment, a non-governme...