Notice to Rahul on citizenship row

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has been issued a notice by the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha, chaired by BJP leader L.K. Advani seeking his response to allegations related to his citizenship in the U.K.

Mr. Gandhi said that he would “deal with” the notice once it is served on him, while Congress leaders accused the government of trying to divert attention from other issues.

“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,” said AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh.

BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy raised this issue and had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last November . BJP MP Mahesh Girri had written to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan requesting an “appropriate enquiry” on the matter, which Ms. Mahajan had forwarded to the Ethics Committee.

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