Is Rahul British Also?

There seems to be some reasoble doubt as to whether Rahul Gandhi was a British citizen at one time and whether he has retained his British citizenship. In any case, the vice-president of the Indian tiol Congress has been served a notice by the Ethics Committee of Parliament, chaired by veteran MP L. K. Advani seeking his response on allegations related to declaration of his citizenship in the United Kingdom. The situation has arisen from the fact that in the first week of January this year, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had forwarded to the Ethics Committee the complaint of BJP MP Mahesh Girri requesting “appropriate inquiry” into party colleague Subramanian Swamy’s allegations that Rahul Gandhi had declared himself a British citizen in order to float a company in that country. “The Ethics Committee has issued a show cause notice asking him (Rahul Gandhi) how he showed his citizenship as British when he was in London and became a director...” Arjun Ram Meghwal, one of the committee members told reporters outside Parliament on Monday. Apparently, Swami had also approached the Speaker of the Lok Sabha in this regard. Girri, an MP from East Delhi, had earlier maintained that it was necessary that people should get to know the facts in this issue and had requested the Speaker to initiate an appropriate inquiry. In a statement, he had also said then that many “contradictory” facts against Rahul Gandhi had come up and that there was “a big mystery” over his citizenship. In referring the matter to the Ethics Committee, the Speaker had merely gone by the rules laid down for such situations. Subramanian Swamy, a former MP, had also written to Prime Minister rendra Modi last November raising questions over Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship.

To questions by jourlists on Monday, Rahul Gandhi’s response was: “We will deal with it.” That is how his response should have ended. Instead, true to expectations, he has brought in the issue of political vendetta. He has accused the Prime Minister of indulging in mudslinging through his “cronies” and dared the government to probe the allegations against him and to send him to jail if found guilty. It is not for nothing that the charges of immaturity and puerile responses fit Rahul Gandhi so well. But what is a trifle surprising is Digvijay Singh’s gratuitous response on his behalf saying that the Ethics Committee should dismiss the charges purely on the basis of his ancestry!