Daijiworld Media Network - Hyderabad (SHP)

Hyderabad, Feb 20: Former Union Minister and BJP MP Subramanian Swamy made a remark where he claimed that the AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will lose their Indian citizenship soon.

“The file is on the Home Minister Amit Shah’s table and soon they will lose their citizenship,” he said while delivering a lecture on 'CAA - a historical imperative beyond contemporary politics' at the University of Hyderabad, organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Quoting the Indian Constitution, he said people holding the citizenship of another country while being an Indian citizen will automatically cause the people responsible to lose their Indian citizenship. Swamy's statement was an attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who had opted for British citizenship to start a business in England.

"Gandhi can apply afresh for citizenship as his father Rajiv Gandhi was an Indian. However, he cannot apply using the credentials of his mother Sonia Gandhi, who he claimed was not an Indian national," Swamy added.

"On the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he said the CAA was not understood properly and those opposing it had not read the Act itself. Indian Muslims are no way affected with this Act and it was ridiculous to argue that Muslims coming from Pakistan and Bangladesh should be considered for citizenship. Pakistan is not allowing Rohingya Muslims to enter their country and here some people want Pakistanis to come to India," he commented.

The BJP MP clarified that the minorities residing in Pakistan and Bangladesh had nowhere to go to escape religious persecution and their only alternative was India. He believed that people should not oppose such a move. During his speech, a section of students belonging to the Students Federation of India (SFI) stood silently holding placards protesting against the CAA.