Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has blamed the lok Sabha’s Ethics Committee for taking cognisance of the complaint on his controversial British citizenship issue.
In a letter to the Committee chairman lK Advani, Rahul said the complainant and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had “wantonly misled” the panel and it should have ascertained the facts before sending notice to him.
“I am surprised that the committee of ethics has chosen to take cognisance of a complaint that is not in order. This is an endeavour to malign my good name. I have never at any stage sought or acquired British citizenship. My identity is that of an Indian,” said Rahul in his letter dated March 23.
Accusing Swamy of misleading, Rahul also said the Committee should have checked the documents produced by Swamy before sending notice to him. “The complainant should produce evidence to substantiate his allegation and must ensure that the complaint is not false. He must file an affidavit to support his complaint. The documents on which he relies in support of his contention nowhere mention that I have ever declared myself as a British citizen. It is evident that the complainant has wantonly misled.
“Citizenship is a matter of fact. Whether I have ever sought or acquired British citizenship would be part of the official documents with the British Home Office and this fact could have been ascertained from the source before pressing the complaint. I urge Swamy for placing on record any proof of Rahul Gandhi being a British citizen by disclosing his alleged British passport number and relevant documents,” he said.
In November, Swamy had produced documents of Rahul Gandhi’s alleged undeclared company called Backops limited, registered in london. In the documents filed before the company register authorities, Rahul’s citizenship was shown as British and a london address was shown as his place of residence. Citing Swamy’s complaints and documents, BJP MP Mahesh Girri had approached Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for a probe by Ethics Committee on Rahul’s citizenship.
Swamy also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a probe into the citizenship of Rahul. He produced documents of Barclays Bank account of Rahul in the name of Raul Vinci. The address was the same address in london provided by Rahul in the company register office. The bank account, which opened in mid 1994, was closed down on December 2014, six months after NDA came to power.