BJP ‘misleading’ country on black money issue: Congress in Lok Sabha

He said BJP leaders had promised to bring back black money from abroad within 100 days of coming to power.

“Now you have become Prime Minister. You have all the power. I do not want to pain you but remind you,” he said, while noting that not a single penny has been brought back.

The debate under Rule 193, which does not entail voting, was taken up a day after the opposition vociferously raised the issue in both Houses of Parliament in an attempt to corner the government and wanted an urgent discussion.

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.

“If you are sad to say the same thing, 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.

He 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 Rs 25 lakh crore and Rs 21 lakh crore respectively.

“Does country benefit by inciting people’s sentiments?… You should speak with balance in public,” he said.

In his speech, BJP member Anurag Thakur hit out at Congress over its attempts to “save” those with foreign accounts having black money and said the first Cabinet decision BJP government took after coming to power was to constitute an SIT to probe it, something which Congress had been “avoiding” all the time.

“It was our government that gave the names of people having 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.

“You did not do anything in last 5-10 years. When you were in power, you were not committed to bring back black money and
when you are not in power, you are still not committed to bring back the black money,” the BJP MP said.

He also attacked Trinamool Congress – one of the opposition parties leading the attack on the government on the black money issue – 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.

Apologise if you can’t fulfil black money promise: Oppn to govt

The government on Wednesday came under a blistering attack from the opposition in Rajya Sabha on the issue of black money, with Congress asking it to apologise before people for “selling lies” or else fulfil the poll promise made to them.

Initiating a discussion on black money, deputy leader of Congress Anand Sharma said that when the BJP leaders were in the opposition, they had “misled” the country by making tall promises of bringing back the black money stashed away abroad.

Sharma said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during BJP’s poll campaign, had claimed that black money was to the tune of Rs 85 lakh crore.

He said Modi had also said that black money stashed abroad is equal to five Union budgets and that it was enough to put Rs 15 lakh in the account of all Indian citizens.

The Congress leader said that after assuming office, there has been a change in stance of the Prime Minister and now the quantum of black money is no longer known.

“Today, November 26, 2014, exactly six months after the government has taken over, there is a three sixty degree turn on the issue…Earlier everything was known, now nothing is known,” Sharma said.