New Delhi: In a move which may stir up a hornet’s nest during the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, the Home Ministry has served a notice to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, asking him to clarify within a fortnight his “factual position” on a complaint questioning his citizenship status.
The notice was served following a representation from BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy. Citing Swamy’s letter, the Home Ministry said it has been brought out that a company named Backops Limited was registered in the United Kingdom in 2003 with Gandhi as one of its directors. As a row erupted on Tuesday on the notice to the Congress chief, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow said it is a normal process and “not a big development”.
Swamy’s letter also mentioned that in the British company’s annual returns filed on October 10, 2005, and October 31, 2006, Gandhi’s date of birth has been given as June 19, 1970, and he had declared his nationality as British, the ministry said. “Further, in the dissolution application dated February 17, 2009, of the above referred company, your nationality has been mentioned as British.
“You are requested to intimate the factual position in the matter to this ministry within a fortnight of the receipt of this communication,” the notice issued by the Home Ministry on Monday said.
In November 2015, the Supreme Court had dismissed a public interest litigation seeking a CBI investigation into the citizenship of Gandhi while noting that PIL pleas were not meant to target one individual or organisation but was a medium to resolve human suffering through good governance. In 2016, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had forwarded to the Parliamentary Ethics Committee, headed by veteran BJP leader L K Advani, Swamy’s “complaint of ethical misconduct” against Gandhi that he had accessed documents in which the Congress leader had called himself “British”.
In his reply to the ethics committee , Gandhi had said he had never “sought or acquired British citizenship” and that his “identity is that of an Indian”.
Come clean on issue: BJP
In the wake of a Home Ministry notice to Congress President Rahul Gandhi on his citizenship status, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday asked him to clarify whether he is an Indian Citizen or a British.
Addressing a press conference here, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said due to confusion over several issues concerning Gandhi, he seems to be “a mystery man”. There is confusion with regard to his appointment as board of director in various companies, who he meets during his foreign tours, his educational background, etc, he added. (Agencies)
