Patriotic Indians should thank the President of India for having the courage, by citing a legal hitch, to dissuade Ms. Sonia Gandhi from staking her claim to form the government on May 17th this year. She therefore, despite all the contrived media hype, did not, and could not, become the Prime Minister 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 this rational determination, and suggest what patriotic Indians can do now to implement that democratic and patriotic resolution.
My opposition to Ms. Sonia Gandhi is not merely because she is Italian---born, although that by itself is a major issue. 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 incorporating into 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 [see annexure 1 & 2]. 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 is fair to assume that this report of the President’s decision is correct, since the President had before him my petition dated May 15, 2004 [see Annexure-3] 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. I 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.
I 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 reprieve received not only because her citizenship of India by registration is not equal to one by birth even by Indian law, but a reprieve more because of the national security risk that was averted.
To comprehend that risk, we must however first understand who Sonia Gandhi really is and what kind of danger she, her family and her friends in Italy, hold for India’s national security. Very little is known about the Mainos’ murky past, and the little that we are told about Sonia are lies. In other words, Indians do not know who Sonia really is or what she represents [see Annexure-4].
Even for an Indian born citizen, we find it difficult to know a person’s true background, but for a foreign-born it is extremely hard because of the remoteness of the place and the language barrier for most people, in this case---Italian.
This note is thus an aide d’memoir of certain verifiable facts that taken together constitute the danger that Sonia Gandhi represents for the nation. And that is the real Sonia and what she represents.
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