Rahul Gandhi issued notice by Parliament panel on citizenship row

March 14, 2016

New Delhi, Mar 14: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has been issued a notice by the Ethics Committee of Parliament chaired BJP veteran L K Advani seeking his response on allegations related to declaration of his citizenship in the United Kingdom.

“We will deal with it,” Mr. Gandhi said on Monday to queries by reporters while the Congress reacted sharply, accusing the government of trying to divert attention from pressing issues facing the country.

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 Mr. Gandhi had declared himself a British citizen to float a firm in that country.

“The Ethics Committee has issued a show cause notice asking him (Rahul Gandhi) how he showed his citizenship as British when he was in London and became a Director...,” Arjun Ram Meghwal, one of the committee members, told reporters outside Parliament on Monday.

Mr. Swamy had also approached the Speaker in this regard.

Mr. 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.

Mr. Swamy, a former MP, had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last November raising questions over Gandhi’s citizenship.

Hitting back, Mr. Gandhi had accused the PM of indulging in mudslinging through his “cronies” and dared the government to probe the allegations against him and send him to jail if found guilty.

Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury on Monday alleged that the government was trying to divert attention from the “various crises” being faced by the country.

Party leader Digvijaya Singh said that the complaint did not deserve attention. “A person who is born in India and whose grandmother and father have been Prime Ministers of India, can that person be a citizen of some other country. The Ethics Committee should dismiss it,” he said

The Supreme Court had in November last year rejected a plea seeking a CBI inquiry into the allegations against Gandhi and questioned the “authenticity of the document” attached with the PIL and the manner in which the papers were procured.

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Over 58 lakh names dropped from draft voter list in Bengal ahead of polls

News Network

December 16,2025

The deletion of over 58 lakh names from West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls following a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has sparked widespread concern and is likely to deepen political tensions in the poll-bound state.

According to the Election Commission, the revision exercise has identified 24 lakh voters as deceased, 19 lakh as relocated, 12 lakh as missing, and 1.3 lakh as duplicate entries. The draft list, published after the completion of the first phase of SIR, aims to remove errors and duplication from the electoral rolls.

However, the scale of deletions has raised fears that a large number of eligible voters may have been wrongly excluded. The Election Commission has said that individuals whose names are missing can file objections and seek corrections. The final voter list is scheduled to be published in February next year, after which the Assembly election announcement is expected. Notably, the last Special Intensive Revision in Bengal was conducted in 2002.

The development has intensified the political row over the SIR process. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress have strongly opposed the exercise, accusing the Centre and the Election Commission of attempting to disenfranchise lakhs of voters ahead of the elections.

Addressing a rally in Krishnanagar earlier this month, Banerjee urged people to protest if their names were removed from the voter list, alleging intimidation during elections and warning of serious consequences if voting rights were taken away.

The BJP, meanwhile, has defended the revision and accused the Trinamool Congress of politicising the issue to protect what it claims is an illegal voter base. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the ruling party fears losing power due to the removal of deceased, fake, and illegal voters.

The controversy comes amid earlier allegations by the Trinamool Congress that excessive work pressure during the SIR led to the deaths by suicide of some Booth Level Officers (BLOs), for which the party blamed the Election Commission. With the draft list now out, another round of political confrontation appears imminent.

As objections begin to be filed, the focus will be on whether the correction mechanism is accessible, transparent, and timely—critical factors in ensuring that no eligible voter is denied their democratic right ahead of a crucial election.

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