DO YOU KNOW YOUR SONIA ?
Subramanian Swamy
President, Janata Party
A-77 Nizamuddin East
New Dethi-110013, India
Tel: +91 98101 94279
e-mail: swamy@post.harvard.eduDo You Know Your Sonia ?
Subramanian Swamy
Patriotic Indians should thank the President of India for
having the courage in citing a legal hitch to dissuade Ms. Son
Gandhi from staking her claim to form the government in May
this year, She therefore did not, as expected on May 17",
become the Prime ter of 1 billion plus people of India. It can
now be said that Bharat Mata has been saved from a
monumental, devastating, and permanent injury to her national
interest and to the patriotic psyche of Indians.
Therefore, it should be the resolve of every Indian to make
any and every effort that can be made in a democracy, to ensure
that Ms. Sonia Gandhi is kept permanently out of reckoning for
any public office. For those who instinctively understand that
imperative, this Note has been written to explain the factual
basis for it, and suggest what patriotic Indians can do now to
achieve that democratic and patriotic goal.
My opposition to Ms. Sonia Gandhi is not merely because
She is Italian--born. In other democratic countries, including in
Italy, such an issue [of foreign-born aspiring to be head of
government]would not even arise at all because the issue has
already been settled by law, that a person cannot hold the
highest public office unless he or she is native born.
In India there is no such law but the President, according
my knowledge, has correctly acted on a proviso to Section 5 of
the Indian Citizenship Act[1955] which requires the Union Home
Ministry to lay down conditions to Indian citizenship acquired by
foreigners by registration, condition based on the principle of
reciprocity. In Ms Gandhi’s case, such of those conditions that
apply to Indians on becoming citizens of Italy would apply to her.The President reportedly had communicated to Ms. Gandhi
on the afternoon of May 17, 2004, that if she insisted on being
invited to form the government, he would want first to clarify, on
a reference to the Supreme Court, whether in view of this proviso
her appointment as PM could be successfully challenged in the
court.
It
fair to assume that this report of the President's
n is correct, since the President had before him my
petition dated May 15, 2004 [see Annexures A1 to A4] making
just that point—- that Ms, Gandhi's citizenship is conditional, and
in particular she cannot be the PM legally.
The President had also given me an appointment at 12.45
PM on May 17, 2004 to explain my submissions in person, which I
did. | also told him that I would challenge such a unconstitutional
appointment in the Supreme Court just as I had in 2001 when Ms
Jayalalitha was illegally sworn in as Chief Minister by the Tamil
Nadu Governor.
In that case, the Supreme Court had after hearing me and
many other constitutional luminaries, upheld my contention that
mere majority in the House is insufficient for being sworn in to a
constitutional office, and that the constitutional appointing
authority must ensure that there are no disqualifications as well.
Ms. Jayalalitha had therefore to step down because she had
been disqualified by her conviction in a trial court in the TANSI
corruption case [filed by me as a private complaint] She was
subsequently acquitted by the Madras High Court, and hence
became eligible the following year.
l also cited to the President a 1962 Allahabad High Court
case which held that this proviso in the Citizenship Act was
binding and lawful.
The nation by the stalling of Sonia becoming Prime Minister
of India, has thus got an unexpected but temporary reprieve, a