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Pawar, Sangma, Anwar oppose Sonia as PM

Three senior Congress Working Committee members today demanded that the party promise to amend the Constitution of India so that only "natural born Indian citizens" can hold the three highest offices of the land.

This has fuelled the foreigner controversy stoked by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies.

Following a stormy discussion on the issue at the CWC yesterday, three members -- Sharad Pawar, leader of the Opposition in the dissolved Lok Sabha, former speaker Purno A Sangma, and former party general secretary Tariq Anwar -- in a four-page letter to party president Sonia Gandhi, urged her to propose an amendment to this effect in the party manifesto for the Lok Sabha election.

Party general secretary Oscar Fernandes issued a written confirmation about the receipt of the letter signed by the three politicians and said it would be discussed in the CWC on Monday, May 17.

Fernandes, however, declined to go into the contents of the letter. He also refused to contemplate on the action that may be taken against these politicians, saying the CWC would go into all these issues.

Fernandes, who is in charge of the CWC, the highest decision-making body of the party, said invitations had been sent to all members, including Sangma, who is on his way to the United States.

The three politicians said in their letter that they stood by their views expressed at the CWC and the issue should be debated at length as it cannot be "wished away".

It is not possible for a country of 980 million, with the wealth of education, competence and ability at its disposal, to have someone other than an Indian citizen born of Indian soil to head its government, they said.

The letter, which is full of praise for Gandhi and her three decades as daughter-in-law of the party's first family, however, expressed surprise that she allowed herself to forget at a crucial juncture that "inspiration, honour, pride and dignity" are rooted to "our soil". "It has to be this earth," they said.

The letter has come as a surprise, because Pawar was a votary of Gandhi being invited by the President to form the government since she was chairperson of the Congress Party in Parliament. Sangma was also believed to be in the inner circles of the party chief. Only Anwar was out of favour, having been dropped as general secretary in the latest reshuffle of the party's office-bearers.

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