New Delhi: Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy on Saturday threatened to take legal action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for allegedly protecting Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, in matters of his citizenship.
Why is Modi and Shah protecting Rahul Gandhi when he is a foreign citizen having acquired British Citizenship in 2003, and started a company called Back Opps in London? His Indian citizen is invalid. If Modi continues to protect, I will have to file a case against him Modi&Shah pic.twitter.com/3QsPpi7e8f
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) August 10, 2024
Sharing a piece of document on X—which he claimed to be the testimonial for annual tax return filed by Gandhi, the BJP leader, wrote: ‘This is Rahul Gandhi’s Annual Return filed with the British Government as a British citizen. Is Modi blackmailed by Sonia to not take action?’
This is Rahul Gandhi’s Annual Return filed with the British Government as a British citizen. Is Modi blackmailed by Sonia to not take action? pic.twitter.com/iz5YLJtmIC
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) August 10, 2024
Since long, Swamy had been claiming that Gandhi was a British citizen. According to him, Gandhi was granted the citizenship in the foreign country in 2003 and had started a company called Back Opps in London.
Once again raising the allegation on social media, he wrote: “Why is Modi and Shah protecting Rahul Gandhi when he is a foreign citizen having acquired British Citizenship in 2003, and started a company called Back Opps in London? His Indian citizen is invalid. If Modi continues to protect, I will have to file a case against him Modi&Shah.”
He also shared a copy of the complaint he had filed with the Home Ministry in 2019 regarding the issue. Next, he shared another document from the ministry that had asked Gandhi to respond to the same. Swamy claimed that the ministry had responded to his complaint during the tenure of Rajnath Singh as the home minister. But, soon Rajnath Singh was replaced by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah was made the home minister, who—according to him— ‘sat over the issue.’
Odishabytes, however, couldn’t independently verify the authenticity of such documents shared by Swamy on social media platform, X.
Here is what Home Ministry wrote to Rahul Gandhi when Rajnath Singh was HM. Modi replaced Rajnath after that and put Amit Shah as HM, who has sat on it since then. pic.twitter.com/87EHUDaiy4
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) August 10, 2024
Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had dismissed a PIL which questioned the recent election of Gandhi to Lok Sabha—alleging he is a British citizen— after the petitioner sought withdrawal of his plea.
The plea was dismissed by the bench of Justices Rajan Roy and Om Prakash Shukla. Petitioner S Vignesh Shishir, after presenting arguments in the court, sought withdrawal of his PIL with the liberty to approach the competent authority under the Citizenship Act 1955.