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Controversy over Sonia a non-issue: Congress

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday dismissed as a “non-issue” the controversy over party president Sonia Gandhi accepting the Order of Leopold from the King of Belgium in November 2006.

“So far there is no intimation of any notice [for disqualification as a member of Parliament] to the Congress president. What the Election Commission has decided, we don’t know. We are not privy to it,” Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said here.

However, party sources said that based on media reports, a senior Congress MP and an advocate of the Supreme Court had written to the Commission stating that the allegation against Ms. Gandhi was the result of motivated campaigning by interested persons to sensationalise a “non-issue.”

“The Order was a civilian decoration, not a title and not in any manner violates the Constitution. There is no pecuniary/office of profit or any allegiance arising out of the decoration. It was an honour to her for her contribution to the Indian society,” the sources said.

There were several Indians who had been similarly honoured by other countries. The former Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, and actor Dilip Kumar were conferred the highest civilian honour — Nishan-e-Pakistan — by the Pakistan government.

Likewise, if India honoured Nelson Mandela with theGandhi Peace Prize, it did not mean that he owed his allegiance to India or that he should be disqualified in his country, the sources said.

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