Bhopal: Bharatiya Janata Party leader LK Advani on Saturday demanded a white paper from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the action taken by the United Progressive Alliance government to bring back black money from Swiss banks but did not spell out the time his own party would take to initiate action on the issue.
The former deputy prime minister also slammed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on his comments on Friday to have a “critical” relook at the Right to Information Act and how its use might have an inhibiting effect on honest, well-meaning government servants.
“It seems surprising that for the last few Years the UPA Government has always claimed credit for enacting the RTI Act,” Advani said. “The concern for a critical look at the RTI is basically because of the series of exposure of various scams and corruption of the UPA Government,” he said.
“And now, when the instrument of the RTI is being powerfully used by activists to expose the corruption and maladministration of the UPA government, suddenly the prime minister has spoken about the need to have a critical look at it,” said Advani, in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh during his Jan Chetna Yatra over corruption and black money.
Returning to the theme of black money, he said: “I am also demanding it (white paper on action on black money) because since the matter got highlighted, black money is being transferred from Swiss banks to other banks,” Advani told reporters.
When asked about the time BJP would take to act on the issue, Advani said: “I cannot say about the time frame. We have come to power in centre only for six years and in that period our prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had initiated the issue.”
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad accompanied Advani at the press conference.
Meanwhile, BJP has suspended its Satna media in-charge Shyam Gupta after the Satna unit allegedly gave money to media persons for coverage of the yatra. BJP state president Prabhat Jha suspended Gupta on Friday night.
Advani’s yatra will end in Delhi Nov 20. (IANS)