Centre issues notice to Rahul Gandhi over citizenship complaint filed by Subramanian Swamy

Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a notice to Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his foreign citizenship after Subramanian Swamy filed complain against him. BJP parliamentarian Subramanian Swamy has been alleging that the Congress president is a British citizen for years.

"I am directed to say that this ministry has received a representation from Dr Subramanian Swamy, in which it has been brought out that a company named Backups Limited was registered in the United Kingdom in the year 2003, with address 51 Southgate Street, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 9EH and that you were one of the directors and secretary of the said company," says the letter from BC Joshi, Director, Citizenship, in the home ministry.

The notice from the home ministry comes in the middle of the seven-phase national election, in which Rahul Gandhi is contesting from the Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi and Kerala’s Wayanad constituencies.

The letter also says: "It has been further brought out in the complaint that in the company's annual returns filed on October 10, 2005, and 31 October 2006, your date of birth has been given as June 19, 1970, and that you had declared your nationality as British."

According to the letter, the dissolution application of the company, dated February 17, 2009, also referred to Rahul Gandhi's nationality as British.

The letter also asks Gandhi to intimate the factual position of his citizenship. "You are requested to intimate the factual position in the matter to this ministry within a fortnight of the receipt of the communication," the home ministry says.

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