Targeting Sonia

JANATA Party president Subramanian Swamy has joined hands with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in raising the issue of the "foreign origin" of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. If Jayalalithaa had charged on September 2 that Sonia Gandhi had "no qualification but a marriage certificate" to become the Prime Minister, Swamy alleged on September 19 that the Congress president had made a false claim that had appeared in the "Who's Who" of the Lok Sabha, about her educational qualification (Sonia Gandhi, of Italian origin, was married to Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister and Congress president. Her maiden name was Sonia Maino.)

Sonia Gandhi was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 1999 elections from the Amethi constituency. In the "Who's Who", which is published by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, each member is asked to provide his or her curriculum vitae. The biographical sketch of Sonia Gandhi states this about her educational qualifications: "Diploma in English Language, Educated at Cambridge University, Cambridge (U.K.)."

Swamy said he had sent a complaint to then Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi after the University had written that Sonia Gandhi was never a student in the University. Swamy circulated to presspersons in Chennai on September 19 a letter written on November 28, 2001 by David McCarthy of the University of Cambridge, Student Records and Statistics, to a Jay Kumar that "we have no record" of Sonia Maino "as having registered as a student at this University under the spelling of the names you have given." The letter from the University added, "If you have any further information, such as, additional/alternative names, degree awarded, subject studied or the name of the college attended whilst at Cambridge University, we would be happy to re-check our records."

When the Speaker forwarded his complaint to Sonia Gandhi for her comments, she replied stating that she was never enrolled as a student in the University of Cambridge, Swamy said. So he has now requested the Speaker to forward his complaint and Sonia Gandhi's "admission" to the Ethics Committee for deciding on the punishment for this "misconduct", he said. He demanded that she be asked, at the minimum, to apologise to Parliament and, "at the maximum", to resign her Lok Sabha seat. According to the Janata Party president, accurately stating educational qualifications was now a new requirement for candidates contesting elections which, the Election Commission of India, implementing a Supreme Court order, has notified.

Swamy said he had filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court alleging that Sonia Gandhi had given "false" information when she applied for Indian citizenship. According to him, when she applied for the Indian citizenship, the Italian government did not give a letter to the Government of India to the effect that Sonia had renounced her Italian citizenship. Swamy wanted Sonia Gandhi to explain why this had not been done. Under the Citizenship Act, 1955, a letter from the Italian Government confirming renunciation of citizenship was mandatory, he said. Therefore he demanded the termination of Sonia Gandhi's citizenship of India.

T.S. Subramanian