“The entire country knows that Rahul Gandhi is an India,” said Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over the Congress president’s citizenship controversy. Her statement came soon after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi after receiving a complaint from Rajya Sabha MP Dr Subramanian Swamy. Swamy alleged that the Congress scion has declared himself a British citizen in the documents of a company he was associated with. The home ministry has asked Gandhi to respond to the complaint within 15 days.
However, when asked about the controversy, Priyanka said that people of India know that Rahul Gandhi is Hindustani. She said that he was born and brought up in India. “What Rubbish.” Priyanka retorted when media persons asked about the government’s notice to Rahul Gandhi. Priyanka was in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi to campaign for her brother and Congress scion Rahul Gandhi.
Earlier in the day, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala dismissed the allegations calling it Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda to defame Gandhi scion. With this, he added, the prime minister is trying to divert the attention from unemployment, agrarian distress and black money since he didn’t have answers for all the issues. Surjewala claimed that the PM Modi-led BJP government raised the issue back in 2014 too, however, the Supreme Court had dismissed that allegations on November 30, 2015.
In his complaint, Surjewala alleged that Rahul Gandhi was sone of the directors and the secretary of Backops, a company with which the Congress president was associated. He registered himself as a British national in the documents in 2003, with address 51 Southgate Street, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 9EH.
Swamy claimed the company, which was floated in the year 2003 and dissolved in 2009, had its annual return forms mentioning Rahul Gandhi as a British citizen. It was also alleged that Rahul Gandhi had 83% shares in the firm.
