The Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarians have given ‘declarations' to the presiding officers of the two Houses, stating that they do not have illegal accounts in foreign banks or assets abroad.
Coinciding with the United Nations ‘Anti-Corruption Day' and in line with a pledge made by senior leader L.K. Advani, the MPs submitted the declarations on a self-drafted format.
At the conclusion of his ‘Jan Chetna Yatra' to raise awareness on black money, Mr. Advani had declared that the NDA parliamentarians would voluntarily make a declaration that they do not have any illegal wealth stashed away abroad.
Mr. Advani is expected to move an adjournment motion on black money in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The ruling combine had agreed on the motion after the BJP changed its wording ensuring that there was no censure of the government.
Talking to journalists after the party MPs submitted their declarations, Mr. Advani said his party would also ask the government what steps it had taken to repossess the illegal Indian wealth stashed away in foreign tax havens making use of international laws in this regard, as was done by many other nations.
He maintained that many countries like the United States, Germany and France had prevailed upon the countries considered tax havens to hand over their illegal funds back.
He said: “This issue of black money in foreign banks and particularly money earned out of corruption or other illegal means started in the west mainly after 9/11 [incident] when America came to know that a lot of money that was used for terrorism was of this nature.”
In response to questions about when the other NDA constituents would file their declarations, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said they would do so soon.
