From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Is Congress President Sonia Gandhi possessing two
passports, one Indian and another Italian? And, did she travel
to the European countries in the last two years on her Italian
passport?

A word has spread in the capital, and nobody knows by whom, that
she has travelled around the Europe on the Italian passport as
that helped her travel free in the European Union (formerly EEC
-- European Economic Community) countries without the need of
procuring visas for each country.

It has gained so much currency that the Vajpayee Government has
asked the external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis
Wing (RAW), to get a detailed report on her travels abroad in
the past five years. Several internal inquiries have been made
to find if she can be nailed down and the results are with the
Union Home Ministry.

In any case, Sonia Gandhi can not travel secretly since she is
tailed round-the-clock by personnel from the Special Protection
Group (SPG) that provides her the security cover wherever she
goes, whether in India or abroad. As such the Government already
possesses records of her travels maintained by the SPG.

GOING TO COURT: Reports are going around that someone may even
go to a High Court or the Supreme Court very soon to press for
cancellation of her Indian nationality on the ground of her
travels in the Europe as an Italian, challenging her to show
entries of the visas otherwise on her Indian passport for travel
to certain European countries.

Though origin of all these reports is untraceable, an obvious
suspect is the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) which wants to
put a stamp of "foreigner" on Sonia Gandhi in the elections to
build up a nationalist appeal against "a foreigner's sinister
design to annex India." It has several outfits under the
umbrella of the "Sangh Parivar" to do the job like the Bajrang
Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) which attacked the
Congress once again on Tuesday for trying to thrust a
"foreigner" on India as the next Prime Minister.

Sources in the BJP headquarters deny any hand in spread of
reports about Sonia Gandhi's dual citizenship but they say the
party would certainly approach the district magistrate of
Sultanpur, if she files nomination for Amethi or the returning
officer of whichever constituency she picks up to contest, to
demand rejection of her papers with the plea that she has not
surrendered her "mother passport" of Italy and as such she was a
foreigner who cannot contest elections in India.  

Top lawyers have been engaged to make out a case that she had
got her name included in Delhi's voters' list by suppressing the
information that she continues to have the Italian passport, the
sources said.

NO DENIALS: Nobody in the Congress or for that matter at her 10
Janpath residence, however, is ready to end the word-by-mouth
campaign going on against her by denying her possession of two
passports as even her close aide like AICC general secretary
Pranab Mukherjee, who also took over as the AICC Media
Department Chairman on Tuesday, wriggled out the other day
saying he does not know about it.

The AICC sources pleaded that the party cannot keep on denying
all sorts of "rumours" being spread these days by those fearing
rout because of the "Sonia wave" building up across the country.

The Italian law permits dual citizenship and as such an Italian
can hold two passports. The Indian laws are, however, very
strict. Anybody acquiring or possessing a foreign country's
passport automatically loses the Indian citizenship and is
required to immediately surrender his Indian passport.

Those in the External Affairs Ministry and its Foreigner
Regional Registration Office point out that they have no records
to vouch if she had surrendered her Italian passport in 1983 at
the time of acquiring the Indian citizenship. The Italian
Embassy spokesman in Delhi flatly refused to entertain any
question relating to Sonia Gandhi's citizenship. 

SURYA REPORT: Only on Tuesday, English daily "Pioneer" dug out
an old copy of the Surya magazine, then possessed by famous
surgeon-turned BJP executive member Dr J K Jain, and published
one of its reports that had exposed inclusion of Sonia Gandhi's
name in the voters' list in 1980 even when she was still an
Italian citizen and had not acquired the Indian citizenship. The
Election Commission had to subsequently delete her name from the
electoral rolls in 1982, accepting that it was a mistake in
enrolling a foreigner as a voter.

The report came handy for the BJP as its Vice-President Krishna
Lal Sharma used it on Tuesday to point out that even her second
registration in the electoral rolls in January 1983 was illegal
since she was registered as an Indian citizen only later that
year on April 30.

Pointing out that Section 31 of the Representation of the People
Act provides for punishment with jail term up to one year or
with fine or both, Sharma asked in a statement issued at the
party's daily Press briefing: "What steps does the Congress
think should be taken to enforce the law in this case?"

Sonia Gandhi is, however, very much an Indian citizen and hence
fully entitled to be a voter but still Sharma has no qualms in
topping his statement with the question: "Can a non-Indian be a
voter in India?"

Asked if the BJP wants to build up Sonia Gandhi's "foreign
origin" as the prime poll issue despite Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee's plea not to make personal attacks, Sharma
quipped: "Mukhya mudda nahi banayenge, lekin prashna jaroor
puchhe jayenge (Won't make it a main issue, but questions will
be certainly asked)."

"It is a political "adaan-pradaan" (exchange) between the two
parties in the run-up to polls," Sharma added. END.  
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