Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani on Sunday cornered the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre by demanding a white paper on steps taken by the government to bring back the black money stashed in Swiss banks under the Restitution of Illicit Assets Act, which is a Swiss law.
Mr Advani was addressing a big public rally here on the sixth day of his 38-day Janchetna Yatra. He said that the Restitution of Illicit Assets Act, which came into force in Switzerland earlier this year, allows for the seizure of the assets of persons who have been accused of obtaining such assets in other countries through unlawful means.
Mr Advani said that as projected by Global Integrity, an organisation devoted to assessing transparency and accountability of governments, and the Swiss Bankers Association, more black money is deposited in the Swiss banks from India than all other countries taken together. He went on to point out that according to rough estimates black money from India to the tune of over `2.5 lakh crore is now lying in Swiss banks. Adding some pun, he narrated a joke and said: “To a very easy poser, where the capital of India is, a student responded by saying Switzerland!” The student was referring to the flight of capital in the form of black money, Mr Advani added.
Mr Advani said that he has embarked on this yatra to raise the issue of corruption, galloping inflation and black money. He drew attention towards the cash-for-vote scam and said that it is the worst scam in the history of this country.
It is a bleak chapter that some ministers in UPA-1 tried to save their government by purchasing votes. Three of our MPs — one of them a tribal and two dalits — were approached and offered `3 crores each by the Congress, Mr Advani said, adding these MPs became whistleblowers and exposed in Parliament the move to corrupt them. On the one side, the Prime Minister says that they want to make a law to protect whistleblowers and on the other they have sent two of the three whistle blowers to jail and a move is on to even put the third BJP leader behind bars. They are being treated like this whereas Parliament should have passed a resolution to acknowledge their service to the nation, the BJP leader said observing this one episode has motivated him to go in this yatra.