By IANS,
New Delhi : Taking the steam out of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP)campaign on black money, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Tuesday said he “agreed” and suggested that all parties work together to get back the money stashed in foreign banks.
“I agree with (BJP prime ministerial candidate L.K.) Advani on the money in Swiss banks. It (black money) has been there for 60 years. Why don’t we work together to get the money back? Why such ridiculous questions of how much money is there. We agree with the problem,” Rahul Gandhi said at a press conference here.
Advani has made black money a major election issue and unveiled a 100-day plan to bring back the money hoarded in Sweden and 70 other tax havens. According to the BJP, over Rs.70 trillion has been stashed abroad by various individuals.
“We waste a lot of time sitting on these television programmes and dicussing how much money is there in the Swiss banks.
“Whether there is Rs.100 or Rs.101 in the Swiss banks, we know there are billions of rupees. So lets work together to bring it back,” he said.
The Supreme Court is hearing a lawsuit filed by former union law minister Ram Jethmalani and others on the matter. The union government has filed an affidavit in the court terming the lawsuit politically motivated with the elections in mind and said it was doing everything to retrieve the money.