By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday demanded that the government disclose the names of people who hold accounts in foreign banks and face criminal and tax cases in India.
“The people of India expect that at least the names of those facing criminal cases or tax litigation be disclosed,” BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.
Prasad was reacting to a statement by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday that the government was under legal obligation not to release the details of information on black money provided by international institutions.
“We want to assure the people of India that the BJP will vigorously pursue the issue of money stashed away in foreign countries. We will raise it inside and outside the parliament,” he added.
“Either the government has no will power, or it is under some compulsion” to not disclose the names of those who have illegal wealth abroad, Prasad said.
He recalled that when senior BJP leader L.K. Advani raised the issue during the Lok Sabha poll campaign in 2009, the Congress had said “he (Advani) is alerting those who had stashed away money abroad”.