Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said he will “deal with” the notices sent to him by Parliament’s Ethics Committee, which is chaired by BJP veteran LK Advani, seeking his response on allegations that he is a UK citizen.

“We will deal with it,” Gandhi told reporters while the Congress reacted sharply, accusing the government of trying to divert attention from pressing issues facing the country.

In the first week of January, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had forwarded to the Ethics Committee the complaint of BJP MP Maheish Girri, requesting “appropriate inquiry” into party colleague Subramanian Swamy’s allegations that Gandhi had declared himself a British citizen to float a firm in that country.

“The Ethics Committee has issued a show-cause notice asking him (Rahul Gandhi) how he showed his citizenship as British when he was in London and became a Director...,” Arjun Ram Meghwal, a committee member, told reporters.

The Supreme Court had rejected a plea in November 2015 seeking a CBI inquiry into the allegations against Gandhi, questioned the “authenticity of the document” attached with the PIL and the manner in which the papers were procured.

Based on tax documents, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has been demanding that Rahul’s election be annulled and that the Amethi Lok Sabha seat be declared vacant. Swamy had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.

Incorporated in 2003 and dissolved in 2009, Rahul’s election affidavit of 2004 states he is the “Prop. Of Backops Ltd, Europe”. In the certificate of incorporation on August 21, 2003, Rahul declared himself as an “Indian national”, but tax documents of October 2004 show him as “British”.

While this has been struck off and corrected to “Indian”, annual returns of October 2005 also show him to be “British”.

A UK governemnt spokesperson had indicated that this could well be a technical error as the annual returns were filed electronically.

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