Ekta Kapoor bow out…..Maam is the uncrowned queen of soap operas!!

Meanwhile, Atanu, you shld go and buy a TV….and make sure you don’t miss out the daily soaps!!

PROVIDED that in prescribing the conditions and restrictions subject to which persons of any such country may be registered as citizens of India under this clause, the Central Government shall have due regard to the conditions subject to which citizens of India may, by law or practice of that country, become citizens of that country by registration.

It is not “rights and privileges” that are at issue here, but the *conditions* whereby an Indian may acquire citizenship in Italy. For more, go to http://www.indialawinfo.com/bareacts/citi.html

The Supreme Court of India heard a similar challenge(based on Sec 5) to Sonia’s citizenship in Sept, 1999 and dimissed the petition.

Quote:

“The most damaging clarification that has apparently been sought relates to Article 102 of the Constitution that says: “A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of either House of Parliament” on any or more of five possible grounds. Clause(d) of the same Article says “… or is under any acknowledgement of allegiance or adherence to a foreign state”.

The term “adherence” had to be clarified specifically as Ms Gandhi in her affidavit before the Returning Officer of the Rai Bareli parliamentary constituency had stated that she owned ancestral property, namely portion of a house, in Orbassano, Italy, the country of her origin.

This fact of ownership, legal experts say, makes her subject to Italian law in this matter and could be interpreted as “adherence” to a foreign country. Since this portion of the ancestral property was apparently bequeathed to her by her father in his will, she inherited it only after his death. Consequently, the property was not her’s when she filed her 1999 nomination affidavit.

Article 103 states that “if any question arises as to whether a member of either House of Parliament has become subject to disqualification mentioned in Article 102, the question shall be referred for the decision to the President and his decision shall be final”. Clause 2 of the Article says: “Before giving any decision on such question, the President shall obtain the opinion of the Election Commission and shall act according to such opinion.”

Endquote

http://us.rediff.com/election/2004/may/19onkar.htm

The Rashtrapati Bhavan has denied that President A P J Abdul Kalam raised the issue of citizenship during his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday. “The matter was not discussed at all,” S M Khan, the President’s press secretary, told rediff.com

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Govindacharaya, met the President and raised the issue of Gandhi’s foreign origin, he said. “The President simply heard them out.”

Of all the sycophants, the Guardian should take the cake. Look what was written in the Britian’s Guardian:

Yet there seems to have been more political calculation, and less of emotion, behind her decision than at first sight appears – and it could, in the end, be the right one for Congress and for India. Mrs Gandhi has learned fast in the past six years how to make the most of the charisma attached to her name, and her nationality is irrelevant for the millions of poor and illiterate who tipped the balance in the polls. She may be Italian by birth but for them she is Mother India.