Jagan, Sonia and citizenship

No country can terminate citizenship that way. According to the Citizenship Act, anyone who acquired citizenship of another country ceases to be a citizen of India. Even if the Parliament has authority to make new law to terminate citizenship for any other reason, it cannot have retrospective effect to send Sonia Gandhi back to Italy.

It is the misfortune of Indians that we are guided and preached to by those who ignore history, people and the Constitution. Jaganmohan Reddy has asked UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi whether she would leave the country if her citizenship was terminated.

Firstly, her citizenship cannot be terminated; secondly, it has no relevance to his subsequent question on how people would leave Telangana when they had settled here for 60 years when she could not go back because of her stay in India for 30 years. Citizenship law provides citizenship by naturalization. A foreigner who has resided in India for 12 years may naturalise as an Indian citizen. The applicant must have lived for a total of 12 years in India within a period of 14 years, and must have lived in India for 12 months uninterrupted prior to applying for citizenship.

Section 5 (c) was inserted in the Citizenship Act, 1955, through an amendment which enabled a foreigner marrying an Indian citizen to acquire Indian citizenship by registration, if he/ she has resided in India for five years at the time of applying. Sonia Gandhi became an Indian citizen in 1983 by naturalisation, as provided for under Section 6 of the Citizenship Act, which says any person not born in India or having Indian parents to become an Indian citizen if he or she has resided in the country for at least eight years on the date of application. The person concerned must have resided in the country throughout the eighth year. (The1986 amendment increased the residence requirement to 13 years.)

It is clear that Sonia Gandhi fulfilled the residence requirement. Some alleged that she might not have renounced her Italian citizenship since that country allows dual citizenship. President Pranab Mukherjee said she relinquished her Italian citizenship by surrendering her passport on April 27, 1983. The party statement has asserted that she applied for Indian citizenship on April 7, 1983, got it on April 13 and then she exercised her rights as a voter. The Constitution does not distinguish the rights of citizens on the basis of how they acquired citizenship; by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation or incorporation of territory.

When Sonia entered politics and was about to become Prime Minister, critics and the Opposition had raised issue of ‘foreigner’ becoming the ruler. There was even a plan to amend the Citizenship Act to restrict high constitutional posts, such as offices of President, Vice-President and Prime Minister, to "natural-born" citizens of India. That would certainly have violated the clause of ‘equality before law’ guaranteed by the Constitution. Jagan perhaps forgot that he had served the party as an MP, along with his father, former Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who was also an MP for many terms.

For instance, Sharad Pawar left the Congress party alleging that Sonia was a foreign-born person and that such a person as had acquired citizenship could not rule India. However he didn’t hesitate to join an alliance under her leadership to share power. Jagan is raising the issue long after leaving the party. YSR had promised Sonia Gandhi that he would help her realize her dream of seeing Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister, perhaps in return for his being allowed to remain CM as long as he wanted and then his son inheriting the office.

No country can terminate citizenship that way. According to the Citizenship Act, anyone who acquired citizenship of another country ceases to be a citizen of India. Even if the Parliament has authority to make new law to terminate citizenship for any other reason, it cannot have retrospective effect to send Sonia Gandhi back to Italy. She acquired legal right to continue as citizen of India, and it cannot be terminated according to the existing law in the given circumstances.

Like many politicians who oppose Telangana, Jagan also said that all this was done for votes and seats. Perhaps ‘notes’ also should be added to the list. The registered CBI charge sheet specifically alleges that he made ‘notes’ using the ‘seat’ of power acquired by ‘votes’ from people, which include voters from Telangana whom his father promised a separate State. Though his ‘notes’ helped fill the Lal Bahadur Stadium with 14 trains and thousands of buses and other vehicles bringing crowds, it was representation only from 13 districts. Telangana was excluded.

It was during YSR’s legislature party leadership that more than 40 legislators had submitted a memorandum to Sonia Gandhi seeking a State of Telangana. It was again he, as PCC President, who contested the 2004 polls in alliance with the TRS, showing support for division of the State; it was during his leadership that Sonia Gandhi promised to carve out Telangana; that was announced at a public meeting and included in Common Minimum Program of the UPA. If YSR’s Congress could register a win against Chandrababu Naidu in 2004, one of the reasons for it was sweep in Telangana because of the promise to give a Telangana State. He reiterated support to Telangana in 2009 also, though he took a U-turn immediately thereafter.

However, one can appreciate Jagan for his clear stand, like CM Kiran Kumar, in his strong opposition to Telangana. He was addressing people of 13 districts for their votes and seats by exploiting the sentiment and anger generated by misleading statements like that Seemandhra would go dry, their youth would not get any jobs, etc. It is for the people to understand the reality.