British citizenship row: Rahul Gandhi issued notice by Parliament’s ethics committee

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was on Monday served a show-cause notice by the Ethics committee of Parliament asking whether he had declared himself as a British citizen during his stay in the United Kingdom.

“A showcause notice has been issued seeking his (Rahul’s) response on why he declared himself British citizen in documents related to a UK company,” Parliament’s ethics committee member Arjun Ram Meghwal told ANI.

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament House, Rahul was brief in his reaction: “We’ll deal with that.”

In January, BJP’s Delhi MP Maheish Girri wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan asking tha the Ethics Committee of Parliament investigate the matter on priority and without prejudice because “no person is above Constitution”.

Girri had complained to Mahajan against Rahul’s alleged “dual citizenship”.

“Many contradictory facts against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi have come up. There is a big mystery over his citizenship now. If he is a citizen of two countries, then it’s a matter of serious concern,” Girri had said in a statement issued, adding that it was “very important to clear the speculations hovering” over him.

Accusing Rahul of declaring himself a British citizen to float a firm in the UK, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding that the Congress MP be stripped of his Indian citizenship as well as his parliamentary membership. The Congress has dismissed Swamy’s charge.

The ethics committee is headed by veteran BJP leader LK Advani.