The Hindu : National : There's legal bar on Rahul becoming PM: Swamy

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Tuesday, Jun 21, 2011
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National

There's legal bar on Rahul becoming PM: Swamy

K. Balchand

NEW DELHI: Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Monday criticised Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh for proposing that Rahul Gandhi take over as Prime Minister and said that legally Mr. Gandhi and his sister were barred from the post.

In a statement, Dr. Swamy dubbed Mr. Singh as the “mouthpiece of the Janpath coterie” and said the coterie had “lost all hope on Manmohan Singh performing in the coming months as the 2G spectrum scam unravels and the list of accused lengthens with additions from the Congress.”

He accused Mr. Digvijay Singh of treating the Prime Minister as “some kind of regent in the Maino dynasty, waiting for Rahul to grow up.”

Dr. Swamy, however, argued that there was a legal bar on Mr. Gandhi becoming the Prime Minister “arising from Italian law which made him a citizen upon birth. He has never renounced this inherited citizenship and that he has travelled on Italian passport all over Europe on an alias.”

Dr. Swamy said Mr. Gandhi should “learn from the experience of his mother whose attempt to become the Prime Minister in 2004 was aborted when the then President of India Abdul Kalam wrote a letter (which is still to be published) which was read by two witnesses present when Ms. Sonia Gandhi received that letter, namely Natwar Singh and Manmohan Singh. It should now be perfectly clear to Ms. Sonia Gandhi as well as her two children that there is no legal way by which any of them can ever become the Prime Minister of India.”

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