dvani demands recovery of black money

Advani demands recovery of black money


Sambalpur: As part of his countrywide campaign against corruption, BJP leader L K Advani on Sunday said that if the black money worth Rs 25 lakh crore stashed in foreign banks returns to India, the country could see a new age.

The entire money would be utilized for the villages of India and with such huge investment in rural India, the dream of Naya Bharat could be achieved, he said during his Jan Chetana Yatra in Odisha.
Advani reached Bargarh almost two hours late after completing his schedules in the BJP- ruled Chhatisgarh. At the entry point at Luhurachati on Odisha-Chhatisgarh border, the State party leaders gathered to accord him a warm welcome.

Addressing a vast gathering at Bargarh, Advani said the main aim of the Yatra was to create awareness among the people all over the country on the unbriddled corruption by the UPA Government and recovery of black money stashed in foreign banks.

Referring to the ‘Cash for Vote’ incident in Parliament in 2008 and the role he and his party MPs played in it, Advani said, “We did everything to expose the ugly face of the Congress in particular and the UPA Government’s plans in general to save the minority Government by any means. Our MPs showed the crores of money in the floor of the Parliament, given to them to vote for the Congress to save the Government. But finally, the UPA Government arrested the MPs for no fault of theirs,” lamented Advani during his speech.

“In the floor of the Parliament, I asked Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram last month that I directed the MPs to receive the cash and show it in the House. If you have arrested my MPs, arrest me too,” said Advani further.

“In every developed and civilised nation, whistle-blowers are treated with respect. They are also given protection. But in our country, the situation is just reverse and not ordinary persons but MPs who brought the ugly affairs of ‘Cash for Vote’ to light had to go to Tihar jail,” he rued.

Coming down heavily on the UPA II, the BJP patriarch said, “I have not seen such a corrupt Government in my lifetime and particularly since Independence.”

While comparing the present regime with that of Jawaharlal Nehru and even of Indira Gandhi, he termed UPA II to be the most corrupt one.

Talking about the current Government, Advani ridiculed, “Manmohan Singh presides and Sonia Gandhi decides.”

“In 1997, I started the Swarn Jayanti Rath Yatra and BJP with NDA came to power in 1998 and ruled for six years with AB Vajpayee as the Prime Minister. People of the country still remember the good governance of the NDA and BJP,” said Advani. He also cited examples of the BJP- and the NDA-ruled States in Chhatisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar with their people satisfied to the greatest extent.

Senior leaders of the party like Anant Kumar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Vijay Goel, State unit president Jual Oram, Rudra Pani, Radha Rani Panda and all local leaders of the party were present.