The fledgling party, Swaraj Abhiyan, held its first rally in the capital on Sunday against black money and demonetisation at Jantar Mantar. Swaraj Abhiyan leaders said the Union government was people with its “half-hearted” attempts to tackle black money and political parties were “functioning as conduits” in converting the illegal wealth.
Criticising the recent decision to leave out politcial parties from tax ambit, Yogendra Yadav, a founding member of Swaraj Abhiyan, compared black money to a 10-headed Ravan and that demonetisation only takes out one of the heads and to kill it, its navel — political corruption — has to be attacked.
The party claimed that successive governments and all major political parties have “consistently defied Election Commission’s plea” to follow standard accounting practices. Cash declarations by political parties till December 30 be made public and subject to a special audit, it demanded.
“There is no way the government can prevent political parties from functioning as conduits of converting demonetised currency into white money,” the party claimed. “I had written to the Prime Minister in July 2014 suggesting him ways to curb black money...Instead of taking any action, existing laws and institutions that could prevent corruption and black money are being weakened,” president Prashant Bhushan, another founding members of Swaraj Abhiyan, said.
