Cong doing nothing to bring back black money, says Advani

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Thursday reiterated the demand for a white paper from the United Progressive Alliance government on the action it had taken so far the bring back the black money stashed away in foreign banks by India citizens.

The BJP leader on Thursday addressed massive public rallies, one at Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh and another in Guwahati, as part of his countrywide Jan Chetna Yatra.

Taking on the Congress-led UPA government 'for precipitating an era of corruption in the country during its regime', the BJP leader wondered 'why the UPA government was so silent in its 'action', if any, on bringing back black money from Swiss banks to the country, though it even told the Supreme Court that it was taking action in this regard?'

"Huge amount of black money is stashed in Swiss banks, but the government does not have the will to bring it back," he said.

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He pointed that Switzerland had passed new laws that would help other countries in bringing back the black money, but the government has 'failed' to show the required zeal.

"The past two-and-half-years of UPA II regime has tarnished the image of the country as a scam emerges by the day," he added.

Advani also demanded that it was he who should be arrested in the 'cash-for-vote' scam as his party MPs had exposed the scandal under his full knowledge.

He also alleged the UPA government's failure in protecting 'whistleblowers' was evident in the arrest of the BJP MPs who had waded currency bundles in the Parliament to expose the cash-for vote scam during the trust vote in 2008.

"If exposing the scam was a mistake, I am the bigger offender as I was in full knowledge of how our MPs wanted to expose the corrupt practices of the Congress," he said.

Criticising the government's action in the cash-for-vote scam, he said, "Governments worldwide enact legislations to protect whistleblowers; and in our country, those who expose corruption are framed."

He once again termed Dr Manmohan Singh a 'weak prime minister' for his failure to act tough against corruption.

"The Congress says that I am being harsh to the prime minister. But his inaction has earned him the criticism," Advani added.

Advani claimed that this ongoing yatra has been the most successful of the six yatras that he has undertaken so far.

"People's response has been tremendous as they want to tell the Congress that enough is enough," he said.

Regarding India-Bangladesh land swap deal which has triggered protests from various corners in Assam, Advani claimed that the Opposition was not taken into confidence prior to the deal during Dr Singh's visit to the neighbouring country last month.

Contradicting the Congress' assertion that Advani and the leaders of Opposition in the Parliament were informed by Dr Singh, the BJP leader said the prime minister had not mentioned about it.

Advani said the prime minister had held a meeting with him and Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley two days before going to Dhaka.

"But in the meeting, he had not mentioned about the land swap deal with Bangladesh. There was no consultation held," he added.

On the Congress' argument that the land conceded to Bangladesh was in adverse possession of that country, Advani said the government cannot lawfully leave away the country's territory without the permission of the Parliament.