Ethics panel notice to Rahul on citizenship declaration

The Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha has issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi asking him to respond to allegations of declaring himself as a British citizen in the legal papers of a UK-based company.

“We will deal with it,” Rahul told reporters outside Parliament when asked about the notice of the Committee.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had claimed that Rahul had declared himself a British citizen in legal documents of a UK-based firm ‘Backops Ltd’. Rahul was a Director of the firm based in Winchester. BJP’s Lok Sabha member Mahesh Girri had forwarded Swamy’s complaint to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who referred the matter to the Ethics Committee chaired by L K Advani.

Congress was enraged at the notice to Rahul and the statements of BJP leaders questioning his citizenship.

“These are nothing more than a political vendetta of the BJP,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement. He said the Congress vice-president would reply to the notice of complaint of ethical misconduct in conformity with Parliamentary procedure.

“The Ethics Committee should dismiss such a frivolous complaint,” Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters here.

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh wondered how a person who was born in India and whose grandmother and father have been prime ministers can be a citizen of some other country.