Is viswanathan anand a citizen of Spain?

Answer:

Yes of course . As per the Indian Nationality Law Mr. Viswanathan Anand is a Citizen of Spain.



But Why?

To honor his achievements of the international Chess Grand Master title, Spain Government has given him their country's citizenship and it has been quoted in popular media many time.

Anand is a Spanish citizen:

Ref:1

"Being a Spanish citizen too", Anand is a dab hand when it comes to speaking in Spanish, as he explains, "When you are in Europe or somewhere in South America, people who don't know you, don't expect you to be fluent in Spanish.


Ref:2
It was informed that Anand - who lives with his wife in Spain - is a Spanish citizen.

How come he is not an Indian Citizen?

The most important point, nevertheless seldom mentioned by the media here is that "Automatic termination of Indian citizenship upon acquiring another countries citizenship"

According to Indian Nationality Law: Indian Passport act 1967 under Section 9(1) of the act provides that " any citizen of India who by naturalization or registration acquires the citizenship of another country shall cease to be a citizen of India "

So as per Indian nationality law Anand is not a Indian Citizen anylonger once he acquired the Spain Nationality. So we can say Viswanthan Anand is a Indian but not India citizen. In other words one can say Mr.Anand is a Indian born Spain Citizen.

This is the same reason Indian HRD asked this question before granting permission to his honorary Doctorate. But without doing any analysis on this issue the desperate Indian media just Flashed this issue everywhere.

P.S. As quoted above Nobel laureate Dr.Venki Ramakrishnan, and Astronaut Late.Dr.Kalpana Chawla are also some remarkable Indians who last their Indian nationality upon acquiring another country's Citizenship.

Voila..