Kiran Choudhry, Leader of the Haryana Congress Legislature Party (CLP), has demanded that the BJP Government at the Centre should live up to its pre-poll promise and speed up the efforts to bring back black money stashed away in Swiss and other foreign banks. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, had been misleading the people on the issue just to derive political benefits.In a statement issued here today, the former Excise and Taxation Minister said, “The BJP leaders had promised to bring back black money from abroad within 100 days of coming to power. The BJP Government has been in power for about 11 months but not a single penny has been either brought back from abroad or traced despite some searches and raids conducted in the country.”
She quoted senior advocate Mr Ram Jethmalani and main PIL petitioner in a case, who said in the Supreme Court, “There is a determined effort to frustrate the judgment of the Supreme Court on black money. I was shocked when German authorities said there is no communication or request whatsoever from the Indian government so far seeking any information on black money stashed by Indians in German banks. It speaks volumes of the government’s intention.”This explains the non-seriousness of the Central Government in chasing the black money and going after the holders, Choudhry said. The remark made by the Supreme Court Bench that the government was seeking to create a ‘protective umbrella’ for those holding bank accounts in foreign countries conveys a lot and seeks to question the integrity of the NDA Government on the issue, she added.