Nationality row: Rahul issued show cause notice, says will deal with that

New Delhi: The Parliamentary Ethics Committee, headed by veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani, has issued a show-cause notice to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi asking him to respond to questions on whether he had once declared himself a British citizen.

Speaking to the media outside the parliament, the Congress Vice President said, "we'll deal with that".

In the first week of January, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had forwarded to the Ethics Committee the complaint of BJP MP Maheish Girri requesting for "appropriate inquiry" into party colleague Subramanian Swamy's allegations that Gandhi had declared himself a British citizen to float a firm in that country.

Parliamentary Ethics Committee Arjun Ram Meghwal, confirming the news, said that it was a very serious matter and the committee would discuss the further course of action once the Congress vice-president responds.

"A complaint reached the Lok Sabha speaker which she forwarded to the Parliamentary Ethics Committee. The Ethics Committee therefore issued a show-cause notice asking him to respond to as to how he showed his British citizenship when he was about to become the director of a company in London," Meghwal said.

"This is a very serious matter and we would discuss once he responds," he added.

Girri, who is an MP from East Delhi, had earlier maintained that it was necessary that people should get to know the reality in this issue and requested the Speaker to initiate an appropriate inquiry.

In a statement, he had also said then that many "contradictory" facts against Gandhi had come up and there was "a big mystery" over his citizenship.

After referring the matter to the Ethics Committee, the Speaker had then said that whenever an MP sends a complaint to the Speaker, it is referred to the committee as per rules.BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy had accused Rahul of declaring himself a British citizen to float a firm in that country. He had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded that Gandhi be stripped of his Indian citizenship and his membership of Parliament.

Swamy alleged that Gandhi had floated a company called Backops Limited in 2003 in the United Kingdom, and in the annual return form, he had declared himself to be of British nationality with a UK address. Rahul also held 65 per cent of the total shares issued by this company, Swamy claimed.