Hitting back at the allegations made over his nationality by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a probe into the charges and arrest him if he was found guilty.
Meanwhile, Swamy stepped up his attack on the Gandhi scion and alleged that Congress president Sonia and Rahul have $40 billion in their multiple accounts.
Earlier, a charged Rahul while addressing the National Convention of the Youth Congress on the occasion of the 98th birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi, said, “You talk of a 56-inch chest. Probe me, put me behind bars. I want to tell Modiji and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh that I do not have the slightest fear.”
“Modiji, it is your Government. You have the agencies. Get a probe done against me within six months and send me behind bars if you find something. Stop all this, the mud that you throw at me and my family through your cronies. You are not in Opposition, you are in Government now,”
Rahul added while saying there was no truth in the allegations made by Swamy.
As per Swamy’s allegations Rahul had claimed himself to be a British national in documents before company law authorities in United Kingdom (UK). On Thursday, Swamy sought a CBI or Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe alleging that there was a possibility that a shell company with Rahul Gandhi as company secretary and director may have been formed in Britain.
Swamy said that he had written to the Prime Minister on the subject and demanded a probe into it. “While I do not have the complete picture, the material enclosed is of sufficient prima facie value to order an investigation by the CBI/ED with Mr Rahul Gandhi as the principal accused,” Swami said in a letter to Modi.
Talking to reporters in Ahmedabad, Swamy alleged that Congress president Sonia and Rahul have $40 billion in their multiple accounts. He even termed the family as a ‘commission agent’ saying Rahul and his close aides had created a web of shell companies to get commissions.
“As a Member of Parliament, the AICC vice-president cannot earn foreign currency nor have business abroad without prior regulatory approvals. Rahul is in violation of FEMA too. Rahul also cannot have dual citizenship as per the Indian Constitution. Rahul’s Indian passport becomes null and void as he holds a British passport too,” Swamy said while adding that Rahul’s name also figures in the voter rolls of Britain and that he is also exploring if he has citizenship of Turkey and Italy too.
Reacting sharply to Swamy’s allegations, Rahul and Sonia accused the Government and its “masters” of “systematically working to dismantle” the legacy of the Congress. They even alleged that the BJP had a “communal and divisive” agenda.
“Ever since I was a child, I have been watching people from the RSS and BJP throwing mud at my grandmother, my father and even my mother. Different kinds of allegations are levelled against me. There is not even an iota of truth in them. I will not withdraw (from attacking Modi). I will continue to fight for the poor, the farmers,” Rahul said while accusing the RSS and banned-outfit SIMI of fanning communal riots.
In her address to Youth Congress workers, Sonia said: “Today, the present Government and its masters who exercise control from behind the scenes, are systematically working to dismantle the legacy of the Congress, to rewrite our history, to negate all that Nehru, Indiraji and all our leaders have achieved. We will not allow them to succeed. Our party’s history is intimately linked with the history of our country.”
She added that “blatantly partisan” appeals were being made by the BJP to obtain votes and the Government policies favoured the “powerful” at the expense of the weak. Sonia alleged that the “ideology at work” shuns the pursuit of secularism, tolerance, inclusion and equality.