Govt lacks political against corruption: Advani
Amidst the stalemate in Parliament over the issue of setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into alleged 2-G spectrum allocation scam, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani on Sunday accused the government of lacking political will to combat corruption. He also reminded the government of its poll promise of bringing back the black money stashed away in Swiss banks and asked the Centre to ratify the UN convention against corruption.
In his latest blog posted on Sunday Mr Advani said, “I feel sorry to note that India is one of the fourteen countries, which has not ratified it out of the 140 countries who are signatory to the UN Convention.”
Reiterating the Opposition demand for a JPC probe into the string of scandals that have surfaced in recent time, the BJP leader reminded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of his poll promise during the last Lok Sabha elections that his government would bring back Indian wealth stashed in “tax havens” abroad.
“During his poll campaign, the Prime Minister had promised to take action with regard to Indian wealth in foreign banks in the first 100 days of his tenure. More than 500 days have elapsed, and yet there has been no movement in this regard. The reason is utter lack of political will,” Mr Advani said. The senior BJP leader said, a task force set up by his party this year has revealed that there were “estimates of Indian wealth stashed in tax havens overseas vary from $500 billion (`25 lakh crores) to $1.4 trillion (`70 lakh crores)”.
According to the Swiss Bank Association, Mr Advani said, Indians have topped the list of black money depositors at the famous Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS).
He said BJP had raised the issue of India’s “enormous wealth” stashed in countries like Ivory Coast, Liechtenstein and Switzerland and made it an issue during the last Lok Sabha elections campaign. It is interesting, however, to note that Mr Advani, in his blog, chose to avoid any mention of the raging land scam controversy in Karnataka, where chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa is accused of nepotism and favouritism.
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