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'Nationality charges against Chamling false'

The BJP's allegation that Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling holds a Nepali citizenship is an attempt to malign Nepalis, a local weekly has said.

Updated on: Jan 22, 2009, 11:25:48 IST
PTI | By , Kathmandu
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The BJP's allegation that Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling holds a Nepali citizenship is an attempt to malign Nepalis, a local weekly has said.

HT Image
HT Image

Jana Astha, a Nepali tabloid, rejected BJP's charges and said the citizenship certificate of Chamling produced by the party's local leaders was "fake".

The local BJP had distributed documents to media claiming that Chamling, who belongs to Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) party, holds a Nepali citizenship and asked the Election Commission of India to sack the chief minister.

The certificate reportedly stated that the minister was born in Sanischare village in Ilam, an eastern Nepal district. It claimed Chamling and his wife Tikamaya are residents of Budhabare village.

Sanischare and Budhabare both are in Jhapa district and not in Ilam as claimed by the documents, the weekly said. It quoted district administration officials concerned as saying the citizenship code mentioned in the documents is wrong.

The weekly asked Nepal's Foreign Ministry to seek a clarification as to how the Indian political party acquired "fake" Nepali documents.

As the "fake" document contains signature of a Nepali district administration official, it is the job of Nepalese officials to investigate into the matter to determine out how the forgery was done, the weekly said.

There was a similar case going on in Nepal with regards to a CPN-UML's minister's nationality. A Maoist leader has filed a case in the Supreme Court here to disqualify the Parliament membership of Minister for Local Development Ramchandra Jha, a UML leader, claiming that he has acquired Nepali citizen though illegal means though he is an Indian citizen.

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