Rahul Gandhi should clarify his citizenship status: Piyush Goyal

Union Minister Piyush Goyal Tuesday demanded that Rahul Gandhi clarify if he was a British or an Indian citizen after the Centre issued a notice to the Congress president on his citizenship status.

The Home Ministry in the notice, issued on Tuesday, has asked Gandhi to clarify within a fortnight his "factual position" on a complaint by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy questioning his citizenship status.

Citing the MP's letter, the ministry said it has been brought out that a company named Backops Limited was registered in the United Kingdom in 2003 with Gandhi as one of its directors.

Gandhi declared his nationality as "British" in documents related to a company registered in the UK. In the company he was a secretary as well as a director, Goyal alleged.

He also attacked the Congress chief on the Rafale issue, claiming that he had violated directives of the Supreme Court and made baseless allegations on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Gandhi had to later apologise, Goyal said.

On the Samajwadi Party claiming to field a "real fauji", dismissed BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav, against Modi from the Varanasi seat, he said, "It's a democracy and any one can file his nomination papers and contest elections.

The SP announced Monday that Yadav would be the SP-BSP-RLD alliance's candidate from Varanasi.

Yadav was dismissed from service after he complained about poor quality of food served to the personnel.

The people of the country know that PM Modi delivered an honest and transparent government and worked in the interest of the country, whereas Yadav is a dismissed constable, the Union minister said.

There is no relevance in this question and nobody doubts the honesty and integrity of PM Modi, Goyal said.

He exuded confidence that the BJP will get more seats than it got in 2014 and will form a majority government.

The country progressed rapidly under the leadership of Modi, Goyal said, citing the example of Varanasi, which, he said, has seen overall growth.