New Delhi: BJP MPs on Friday gave declarations
that they do not possess illegal wealth in foreign banks to
presiding officers of the two Houses of Parliament, in a bid
to corner the ruling Congress and put pressure on the
government on the black money issue.
Announcing this outside Parliament, BJP leader LK Advani
said the party would also ask the government what steps it had
taken to repossess the illegal Indian wealth stashed away in
foreign tax havens abroad, making use of international laws in
this regard as had been done by many other nations.
"All our party MPs today made a declaration to their
respective Presiding Officers in both House of Parliament. Our
112 MPs in Lok Sabha and 50 MPs in Rajya Sabha had gone to
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Chairman Hamid Ansari to
present their respective declarations," said Advani.
"One of our Rajya Sabha MPs Ram Jethmalani could not come
as his daughter Rani Jethmalani is critically ill in Mumbai,"
he said.
Advani said the declarations were filed keeping in view
the announcement made at the end of the Jan Chetna Yatra that
all our MPs would declare that they did not possess any
illegal wealth in foreign bank accounts.
He said today all have done so on the occasion of
Anti-Corruption Day.
Advani said, "Many nations like America, Germany and
France have forced the nations considered as tax havens to
hand over their illegal funds to them. When there is a debate
on black money in Parliament, we will ask what has India achieved in this regard."
Advani said in view of the UN Security Council`s
resolution on corruption in which there is a mention about
illegal wealth in foreign banks, many nations like America,
Germany and France have forced the nations considered as tax
havens to hand over their illegal funds to them.
In this regard, he said, nations like Switzerland have
changed their laws and passed the Restitution of Illegal
Assets Act, 2011 following which many nations have already got
their illegal wealth back.
He said, "This issue of black money in foreign banks
and particularly money earned out of corruption or other
illegal means started in the West mainly after 9/11 (incident)
when America came to know that a lot of money that was used
for terrorism was of this nature."
On the Congress demand for declaring the legal foreign
bank accounts, the BJP leader said, "If someone has legal
accounts, then they will give such details in their
declarations."
When asked when the other NDA allies would file their
declarations, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said they will do so
soon. She said they were yet to be handed over the proforma
for the declaration.
The BJP action is considered an attempt to put pressure
on the ruling Congress and corner it on the issue of
black money.
The party has already decided to move an adjournment
motion on the issue and the Left is likely to support the
motion, after seeking an amendment to it by adding the issue
of corruption to black money.
PTI
zee
