BJP using black money issue for political gains: Congress

Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Ajay Maken on Saturday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for using the issue of black money for political gains.

Taunting the BJP over the promises it had made to bring back black money to the nation from abroad, Maken said, "The way the BJP has used an issue for political gains, this has never been seen before."

Recalling the BJP's allegations made on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) over black money during their regime, Maken added, "Why reluctance in revealing names, country has right to know, such statements were given by the BJP leaders. They had also said, 'Government's argument that it can release names to the Supreme Court but not public due to double taxation is baseless."

He further said that the Congress today wants to know, why was the BJP misleading the people of the nation?

Yesterday, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that it cannot disclose the names of all those having black money stashed abroad as it violates the double taxation avoidance agreement.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had said that if confidentiality is not maintained, then the execution of treaties will become impossible.

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani had accused the Centre of trying to protect people with black money.

Later, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, had however, cleared that the account holders' names can only be made public in due course of law.

Switzerland had earlier this month said that it will examine Indian requests for banking information on a priority basis and provide requested details in a time-bound manner.

India had also constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe cases of alleged black money of Indians, including funds stashed abroad in places like Switzerland.

A Special Investigation Team, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice M B Shah, is looking into the menace of black money.