New Delhi: 162 BJP MPs from both Houses of Parliament on Friday submitted declarations to their respective presiding officers stating they have no illegal money stashed in foreign bank accounts in an apparent bid to pressurise the government to act on the issue of black money.
In keeping with an announcement made by party leader LK Advani, 112 of the 115 BJP MPs in Lok Sabha and 50 of the 51 party MPs in Rajya Sabha submitted their declarations stating they have no illegal money in foreign bank accounts or tax havens abroad.
The main opposition chose to submit these declarations on Friday which also marks the UN Anti-Corruption Day.
Announcing this outside Parliament, BJP leader LK Advani said the party would also ask the government what steps it had taken to repossess the illegal Indian wealth stashed away in foreign tax havens abroad, making use of international laws in this regard as had been done by many other nations.
"All our party MPs today made a declaration to their respective Presiding Officers in both House of Parliament. Our 112 MPs in Lok Sabha and 50 MPs in Rajya Sabha had gone to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Chairman Hamid Ansari to present their respective declarations," said Advani.
"One of our Rajya Sabha MPs Ram Jethmalani could not come as his daughter Rani Jethmalani is critically ill in Mumbai," he said.
Advani said the declarations were filed keeping in view the announcement made at the end of the Jan Chetna Yatra that all our MPs would declare that they did not possess any illegal wealth in foreign bank accounts.
Advani has also given a notice for adjournment motion in Lok Sabha to discuss the black money issue.
Many nations like America, Germany and France have forced the nations considered as tax havens to hand over their illegal funds to them.
When there is a debate on black money in Parliament, we will ask what has India achieved in this regard," Advani said.
He said nations like Switzerland have changed their laws and passed the Restitution of Illegal Assets Act, 2011 following which many nations have already got their illegal wealth back. He said this practice started after 9/11.
BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said Karnataka Chief Minister Sadanand Gowda, one of the party MPs, and two suspended MPs from Karnataka did not submit the declarations.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, along with party leaders L K Advani and Yashwant Sinha, met Speaker Meira Kumar and submitted the declarations of BJP MPs from the Lower House.
The declarations of BJP MPs from Rajya Sabha was submitted by Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley and Naidu to Chairman Hamid Ansari.
Advani, who had embarked on a nation-wide 38-day yatra for good governance and clean politics, had announced at the culmination of the rally here on November 20 that all NDA MPs from both Houses of Parliament will submit declarations clearly stating that they do not have any such bank accounts.
"BJP has set a model precedent. The party also wants an amendment in the Peoples' Representation Act so that candidates contesting elections have to declare that they do not have any illegal money in foreign banks," Naidu said.
However, NDA members have not submitted their declarations yet. Swaraj said the delay was caused as BJP had not yet sent the format of the declarations to JD(U), SAD and Shiv Sena.
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