He is German: Home Ministry revokes Telangana MLA's citizenship
Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Telangana, Ramesh Chennamaneni is no longer a citizen of India, the government announced on Wednesday, while accusing him of misrepresenting and concealing facts, and obtaining citizenship fraudulently. In its 13-page order, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated that Chennamaneni has German citizenship, and did not qualify for seeking Indian citizenship in 2009. Here are more details.
For the uninitiated, Chennamaneni, who represents the Vemulawada seat in Telangana Assembly, has been battling the citizenship case since he was first elected as an MLA from Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 2009. The MHA had earlier canceled his citizenship in September 2017. However, he moved the High Court, which granted him a stay order, and referred the matter to the ministry.
The latest government order in the issue states that it was, "not conducive to the public good that Mr. Chennamaneni continues to be a citizen of India." He concealed facts about his visits abroad, during the one-year period prior to his application for Indian citizenship, the ministry said in the order, that was released last evening.
"His misrepresentation/concealment of fact(s) misled the government in making its decision initially. Had he revealed the fact that he had not resided in India for one year before making the application, the competent authority in this ministry would not have granted citizenship to him," the order read. Notably, a person must reside for 12 months in India before applying for citizenship.
Reacting to this new order, Chennamaneni said that even though the High Court had decided in his favor, but "the Home Ministry did not consider that and again canceled (citizenship). So, (I) we will approach High Court again for safeguarding my citizenship." "I will continue my legal battle till I get clean chit," he summed.
On a related note, earlier, a plea was lodged in the Supreme Court, seeking cancellation of Rahul Gandhi's Indian citizenship. However, the SC dismissed the plea, citing lack of evidence, thereby allowing Gandhi to contest the Lok Sabha elections. "Some company in some form has mentioned Gandhi as British. So does he become a British citizen," the then-CJI Ranjan Gogoi had asked.
