The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court's harsh comments on the government for failing to bring back the huge sums of money held in foreign banks by Indians, and reminded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about his promise to deliver these slush funds back to the government treasury.

It was the responsibility of the government to disclose the list of names of persons and companies holding money in tax havens abroad. Party spokesperson Shahnawaz Husain wondered why the government was shying away from disclosing information it had.

“If the government and the Congress want to show their intent to fight corruption, they must take early and decisive steps to bring back the ill-gotten wealth stashed abroad amounting to billions of dollars,” Mr. Husain said.

He was surprised that even after receiving concrete information in 2008 on accounts held in a German bank, the government refused to divulge the details. It had admitted to having details of some 18 accounts with a total sum of about Rs.44 crore and had started the process of recovering tax from the account holders.

On the proposed ‘yatra' by the party's youth wing from Kolkata to Srinagar, where BJP cadre plan to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk on Republic Day, Mr. Husain said Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah should welcome the BJP members rather than complaining to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram that the BJP might provoke violence.

When people from other parts of the country came to Srinagar to hoist the national flag, the Chief Minister should help organise the event to make it successful instead of creating a negative atmosphere by expressing apprehensions, Mr. Husain added.

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