The Congress and the Opposition parties on Wednesday accused the Prime Minister of "misleading" the country and the youth in particular, on the black money issue by making false promises of providing `15 lakh to each person during the election campaign. Initiating the debate in the House, leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said Modi should apologise to the nation for "playing with people's emotions" during poll campaign.
"Now, you have become the Prime Minister. You have all the power. I want to remind you of the promises you made during electioneering," he said, while noting that not a single penny has been brought back from these tainted accounts. Targeting the Government, Kharge referred to Government's contention in Supreme Court that it could not disclose names of all suspect account holders due to treaties with foreign countries, he said its stand was similar to that of the UPA.
"You said same thing to Supreme Court, what we have said. Then why did you defame the UPA Government. You misled 125 crore people... You were in power earlier also. You know the difficulties of a Government. You have an opportunity today to apologise to people for speaking untruth and making false promises," he said.
Congress leader Veerappa Moily attacked the BJP by referring to the party's report on black money prepared four years ago. "Where did you get these statisticsIJ This report shows that Ajit Doval, who is now the NSA, was the main person preparing this report. like Napoleon, Modi is going to suffer badly for fooling people. This black money is going to be your Waterloo…Better you aplogise to the people as early as possible. Otherwise, you are going to face people's wrath soon," said Moily, adding that "PM owes apology to the Parliament."
Kharge said various BJP leaders put the estimated sum of black money at different level with Rajnath Singh, now Home Minister, and Nitin Gadkari, now Transport Minister, claiming it to be `25 lakh crore and `21 lakh crore respectively. "Does country benefit by inciting people's sentimentsIJ... You should speak with balance in public," he said.
Countering the Opposition, BJP's Anurag Thakur blamed the UPA Government for hushing the "sin of the corrupt people and provided escape route to black money holders." He alleged that the UPA Government had "amnesty to several people in the HSBC Bank list."
"It was our Government that gave the names of peoplehaving account in the HSBC banks in a sealed envelope to SIT. During the G-20 summit, Modi was the first to raise the issue of black money on a global platform," Thakur said.
He also attacked Trinamool Congress over the Saradha chit fund scam and said before discussing the black money abroad, one should first talk about what is happening within the country. "Those who earned black money are sitting with black umbrellas in the House," he said, attacking TMC on the issue. Thakur unleashed the attack on the TMC by naming all the TMC MPs caught in the Saradha Scam. Thakur's attack on TMC leaders were objected by party MPs. Deputy Speaker M Thambi Durai assured the Chair would expunge the objectionable things.
Thakur was countered by TMC leader Sudip Bandhopadhyay, who pointed to "Modi's false promises" on black money. "It was not your CBI arrested Saradha scamster Sudipta Sen. It was we arrested him within a week. Where is your NRI Prime Minister, nowadays roaming across the worldIJ He is now enjoying after reaching power. What were his promisesIJ He said in more than 100 stages that he will provide `15 lakh to each people by retrieving black money.