Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L. K. Advani on Wednesday demanded that the Union government immediately ratify the United Nations Convention on Corruption and reply point by point to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose statement was a “devastating indictment” of its lackadaisical approach to bringing back black money stashed away abroad.
“No need for Parliament approval”
India was a signatory to the Convention and its ratification was not as complex as in some other countries.
It could be ratified by the Cabinet and there was no need for Parliament to approve it, Mr. Advani told journalists during a stopover at the Begumpet airport here en route to Delhi from Puttaparthi.
Urging the government to take Mr. Assange's statement “very seriously,” he said its operative part was that wealth stashed away abroad must be brought back.
The BJP leader recalled the letter he had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008 about the assessment of economists that the huge amount, if brought back, could solve poverty and infrastructural problems.
