The Opposition, led by the Congress tried to pin down the Government in Parliament on Wednesday over the issue of black money stashed in foreign banks.
Putting up a united front to corner the Government, the Opposition parties in both the Rajya Sabha and the lok Sabha sought answers from the NDA Government on the exact amount of black money in foreign banks and the time frame for bringing it back.
While contending that black money was also being siphoned off through hawala transactions, the Opposition parties claimed that the tainted money was being brought back through investments in real-estate, gold, Non-Profitable Assets and Portfolio. It sought the Government’s response and preparedness in preventing acts of money laundering.
Parties argued that since the BJP won the elections using black money as one of the key campaign issues during the lok Sabha polls, it was time for the Government to come clean on steps taken in this regard. The disappointment of not being able to convey their position to the people of the country during elections was obvious in their arguments as the Opposition leaders accused the Prime Minister of “misleading” the country by giving false promises of providing `15 lakh each to the citizens.
The Congress leaders in both Houses argued that the NDA Government was merely following in the foot-steps of the UPA Government in both the Supreme Court and outside it and was presenting the same argument that names could not be disclosed due to Double Taxation Avoidance treaties with foreign countries.
The Congress sought an apology from the PM for “playing with emotions of the people of the nation” during elections. The Opposition parties also made a veiled attack on Baba Ramdev since he too had made claims with regard to black money and had quoted a sum of Rs 386 lakh crores stacked as black money while Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed it to be Rs 85 lakh crores.
The parties rejected the Government’s argument of a `Confidentiality Clause’ in naming people holding black money in foreign accounts and sought to know names.
“You said the same thing to the 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 the untruth and making false promises,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in lok Sabha.
In the Rajya Sabha, Deputy leader of the party and former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma underlined the UPA Government’s efforts to convince various countries to sign pacts for declaring such names. He mentioned how the UPA Government had to work its way with Switzerland which at one stage was not co-operating and refusing to give names for prosecution even for tax evasion reasons. “The UPA was firm on it hence they signed the pact with us,” Sharma said while former PM Manmohan Singh was all concentration.
In his impassioned speech, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav asked the Government to fulfill the promise made by the BJP during the election campaign to give a share of Rs 15 lakh each to all Indians from the recovered black money.
Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav claimed there was more black money within India than outside it. He sought to know the period during which the black money was stacked outside. He claimed that the Government has not acted enough. Even BSP chief Mayawati argued on the same lines adding that money kept going out of the country slowly and there was no check.
In the lS, BJP’s Anurag Thakur blamed the UPA Government for hushing up the “sin of the corrupt people and providing an escape route to black money holders.” He alleged that the UPA Government had granted “amnesty to several people in the HSBC Bank list.”
The Opposition later expressed dissatisfaction over Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s reply and staged a walk out.