Govt helping black money holders, charges Advani

Alleges UPA of demonstrating inactiveness masterly

GN Bureau | November 4, 2011



Bhartiya Janata Party patriarch on Friday accused the government of giving time to the black money holders to close down their Swiss bank accounts and transfer funds to some other banks or financial institutions.

They have been given strong indication to act fast before the taxation agreement with Switzerland becomes effective in April for disclosure of such accounts, he alleged, asserting that "the very intention of the government is suspect" as its whole plea of taxation agreements does not inspire confidence.

Pointing out that the agreements should have been retrospective to recover huge sums siphoned off by the Indian defaulters over the years, he challenged the government to show sincerity by making names of the account holders in Swiss banks given by the French government recently take prompt follow-up action against them.

In a statement issued at his Jan Chetna Yatra press conference in Pune and circulated by the BJP headquarters here, he said the UPA government demonstrated masterly inactivity by not taking proactive full steps.

"There is a deliberate design to divert and sidetrack the issue itself. The UPA Government is not serious because it has a lot to hide. Why the names of the account holders are not being released? Will the exposure cause embarrassment," Advani asked.

The Congress mocked at him when he raised the black money stashed abroad for the first time in the 2009 elections, but thereafter the Prime Minister publicly declared to take proactive steps within 100 days of his re-election, he said. "Now it is more than two and half years and we see inaction and lack of seriousness."

He added: "Countries world over whether it is powerful nations like USA, France and Germany or even smaller countries like South Korea are taking proactive and effective steps to bring back black money of its citizens which are deposited in foreign banks. Even the UN enacted the Global convention against corruption way back in 2005 to help create the framework for this purpose....Even the UN Convention was ratified late last year after a gap of 5 years and that too after consistent campaign by the BJP."

Related Story

Make public names of Indian a/c holders in Swiss banks: Advani

Pune, Nov 4 (PTI) Taking the UPA government to task for its "masterly inactivity" on black money front, senior BJP leader L K Advani today demanded a white paper on the issue of making public names of Indian account holders in Swiss banks.

"I demand that names of account holders in Swiss banks which have been given by the French government to India recently, must be made public and prompt follow up action be taken against them," Advani who arrived in the city on his Janachetana yatra told a press conference.

Hinting that the focus of upcoming winter session will be on black money, Advani said "UPA government has demonstrated masterly inactivity and there is a deliberate design to divert and sidetrack the issue itself. Why the names of the account holders not being released ?".

Alleging that the very intention of government is "suspect", he said the taxation agreement with Switzerland would become effective from April 2012 and could enable the defaulters to transfer their account to some other banks or withdraw their money from Swiss bank.

Continuing his attack on Congress led UPA, Advani said it appeared that only DMK was suffering for corruption charges.

"Congress is running the UPA government. Only DMK is suffering for corruption. I have no soft corner for DMK but the names of other persons who have endorsed it have also surfaced in 2-G spectrum scam," he commented.

On Lokpal Bill, Advani said he was hopeful of its passing in the winter session of Parliament and added that Team Anna had met BJP leaders during their discussions of Janalokpal draft and agreed to remove some discrepancies in it as suggested by the party.

There should not be any problem in passing the Bill if both Congress and BJP were in agreement, he noted.

Advani reiterated the party stand that Prime Minister should be included in the purview of Lokpal bill.

He said just as good governance and corruption cannot co-exist, democracy and dynastic succession cannot go together and added that it was "shocking" that the principal political party in the country had accepted dynastic rule in principle.

The BJP leader said the galloping food inflation reflected mismanagement of food economy under an economist prime minister.

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