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Lady, Come Clean

Lady, Come Clean

Author: Editorial
Publication: The Sentinel
Date: June 23, 2004
URL: http://www.sentinelassam.com/sentinel_en/archives/jun2304/editorial.htm

Sonia Gandhi (nèe Antonia Maino) married Rajiv Gandhi in 1968. At that time, he was but a junior officer in Indian Airlines and appeared to have no interest in politics. However, after the death of his younger brother Sanjay in 1980, Rajiv had perforce to leave his job with Indian Airlines and take up the post of general secretary of the Congress to aid his mother, who was then president of the party and Prime Minister of the country. And this is where Sonia's citizenship problems began, for it was not quite proper for a would-be prime minister to have a foreign wife. When Sonia, who had in the meantime changed her name from her original very Anglo-Saxon 'Antonia' to the more Indian sounding 'Sonia', adopted Indian citizenship by naturalization under Section 5(1)(c) of the Indian Citizenship Act, on April 30, 1983, Antonia Maino come to be known to the world as Sonia Gandhi.

It would appear that though Sonia did become an Indian citizen in 1983, she did not renounce her Italian citizenship in the manner required by Italian law. Recall that when some dust was raised over her retaining Italian citizenship some time ago, her spokesperson did not categorically say that she had renounced her Italian citizenship; it was only said that she had returned her Italian passport to the Italian embassy. Under Italian law, or for that matter, under Indian law, one does not automatically renounce one's citizenship by merely returning one's passport. Unless one signs an affidavit to the effect that one is not a citizen, then one still remains a citizen of one's country.

Article 11 of the Italian Citizenship Law states that "the citizen who possesses, acquires or regains a foreign citizenship shall keep the Italian one. Nevertheless he may renounce the Italian citizenship if he resides or settles down abroad." Article 12 goes on to say that "an Italian citizen, in case he acquires or regains or chooses foreign citizenship, must communicate it by statement to the registrar of the place of residence or, if he resides abroad, to the entitled consular authority, within three months from the acquisition, recovering or option, or from the achievement of full age, if it is subsequent."

Thus, it is thus evident that Sonia Gandhi continues to be a citizen of Italy, unless she had signed a statement or affidavit to the explicit effect that she had renounced her Italian citizenship and had deposited this statement or affidavit to the entitled consular authority, namely, to the Italian Embassy in New Delhi, within three months of her acquiring Indian citizenship on the 30th April, 1983. She has never stated that she has complied with Articles 11 and 12 of the Italian Citizenship Act.

According to a news item that appeared in a section of the press in 1999, the then Italian Consul-General in Calcutta, Dr Giorgio Guglielmino confirmed that Italian citizenship laws allow double citizenship to Italians who have migrated and acquired citizenship rights of other countries. More: Dr Chanchal Chatterjee of California had made a statement to the press in April 1999 that "the Italian embassy in the US has informed us that any Italian citizen upon obtaining the naturalized citizenship of a foreign country such as India continues to retain their Italian citizenship. Italy does not require them to surrender the Italian passports. Thus, even if Sonia (nèe Maino) Gandhi acquired Indian citizenship, she automatically retains her original Italian citizenship, and even if Ms Gandhi has surrendered her passport to the Indian authorities, Italy can re-issue a passport if she produces a notarized photocopy of her old passport or by considering the surrendered passport as a lost one. Reading the provisions of the Italian Citizenship Act, it would appear that the contentions made by Dr Chatterjee are substantially correct. Sonia Gandhi has neither refuted Dr Chatterjee's statement nor the statement made by the then Italian consul- general in Kolkata that the mere return of her Italian passport was not renunciation of Italian citizenship.

Sonia Gandhi's adherents have never tired of stating that the Supreme Court of India has unequivocally settled the question of her citizenship by declaring that she is an Indian citizen. The transcripts of the Supreme Court's judgement (AIR 2001 Supreme Court 3689 "Hari Shanker Jain v. Sonia Gandhi", coram: Dr. A. S. Anand, C.J.I., R. C. Lahoti, and Doraiswamy Raju, JJ.) make interesting reading. Their Lordships made it amply clear that the question of citizenship could be raised in an election petition, and that the validity of certificate of citizenship issued under Section 5(1)(c) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 could be gone into during trial of an election petition, provided the challenge is based on a factual matrix given in the petition and not on merely bald or vague allegations. The Court said that Italian law was a foreign law so far as the courts in India were concerned, and therefore, could be taken cognizance of only as facts of evidence. During the course of hearing their Lordships asked the two appellants if they could show any book, authority or publication based whereon the Court could form an opinion, even prima-facie, in support of the averments relating to Italian law made in the election petitions. The two appellants could not show the Court anything to support their averments, and that was the reason why their appeals were dismissed. The Court, in disposing the case, also said that a certificate obtained under Clause 5(C) of the Indian Citizenship Act remained valid until and unless it was proved that it had been obtained by means of fraud, false representation or concealment of any material fact. Nowhere in the judgement has the Supreme Court said that the case of the appellants was dismissed on the grounds that Sonia Gandhi is a citizen of India.

Thus, it would seem that she continues to be simultaneously a citizen of India and Italy as Italian law does not require her to surrender her Italian citizenship or passport. Legally speaking, she can also become the Prime Minister of Italy!

Only Sonia Gandhi and her inner circle know the truth - whether she indeed renounced her Italian citizenship in 1983 as prescribed by Italian law. It now remains for Ms Gandhi to lift the veil covering the issue by clarifying by what instrument of Italian law she renounced her Italian citizenship. She owes this much to her adopted country, the nation she professes to love.

Lady, come clean.
 


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