Rahul Gandhi Citizenship Issue, Through Swamy’s Smokescreen

Subramanian Swamy has accused Rahul Gandhi of declaring himself a British citizen to float a firm in that country.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi addressing a function in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy recently stoked a political controversy when he claimed that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was a British citizen and not an Indian.

Swamy has alleged that Rahul floated a firm called Backops Ltd in 2003, and in its annual return form declared himself a British national. The Congress has, however, dismissed Swamy’s charge saying that someone might have committed a mistake while uploading the document. So, is Swamy simply blowing smoke?

Swamy Overlooked Facts?

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

Swamy had released documents that purportedly show Rahul’s declaration of himself as a British national before the British Company Law authorities to set up the firm.

However, the incorporation document of Backops Ltd, which The Quint has accessed, clearly mentions Rahul Gandhi as an Indian.

The incorporation document lists Rahul Gandhi as an Indian.

Though Rahul’s nationality in the company’s 2004 Income Tax returns has been corrected to Indian, the 2005 and 2006 filings show him as a British national. Incidentally, these two returns are ‘self authenticated’ and have not been validated by any authority. So, the probability of an error slipping through by the chartered accountant filing the returns seems pretty high. It’s likely that the accountant may have just ticked the wrong box!

Even as the incorporation document clearly lists Rahul’s nationality as an Indian, Swamy has demanded that he be stripped of his citizenship and parliamentary membership. So, has Swamy mistakenly overlooked or chosen to overlook this key document? Undoubtedly, Swamy will continue to make noise about it until the chartered accountant who ticked the wrong box, comes forward and says it was a typo.

Now, it seems only the chartered accountant can rescue Rahul baba from Swamy.