In the wake of the dual citizenship row in Goa, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) today said that its stand on the issue would be in line with the Indian Constitution.
"Does Constitution of India allow dual citizenship ? We will go by what the constitution says," MGP President Dipak Dhavalikar told reporters here.
Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had yesterday said that permitting dual citizenship was impossible.
Also Read
"I appeal people not to opt for dual citizenship as it will not be allowed," he said.
The CM said that people whose birth is registered in Portugal as they were born before the state was liberated from Portuguese rule, need not worry as they won't be dubbed as a dual citizen.
"My heart pains when I see people standing in front of Portuguese Consulate in Goa to apply for their passport," Parsekar said yesterday.
Union minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju had recently stated that the central government will soon notify an authority in Goa to decide the contentious issue of dual citizenship concerning scores of Goans.
A large number of Goans, especially those born before 1961, are facing legal hurdles given that their birth was registered under the Portuguese rule in the coastal state, according them the status of Portuguese nationals.
However, a few months after the liberation of Goa, the then central government through a notification under the Citizenship Act 1955 automatically accorded Indian citizenship to every person who or either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents was born before December 20, 1961, in Goa, Daman and Diu, which were also Portuguese colonies.
