Government not serious enough on black money: Jethmalani

Former law minister and veteran lawyer Ram Jethmalani Thursday said the central government was not "serious enough" on the issue of bringing back the black money stashed abroad.

At a 'Meet the Press' programme, the lawyer said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was "quite serious" about the issue but questioned his team.

"I have no doubt on the prime minister," he said, adding that he had no faith on some of the people of his team.

"There are only two ways that the government can get the money back - one is the German-French way, where the countries mentioned bribed the banks concerned to get the names of defaulters, and the second is by arresting the high officials of the banks involved as the US did in getting the names declared by them.

"The people concerned are not serious enough. Everything is in a mess (as far as bringing black money back is concerned)", he said.

He, however, said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was doing a good job in probing the matter.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy said he was hopeful that the black money would be brought back home.

"I agree there has been delay on the issue but I am hopeful as his government and party are working on the issue," he said.

"I am not a pessimist as Jethmalani is on the matter and I hope, with work on, we will be able to solve the issue for sure."

However, both agreed on a point that black money was dangerous for India's economic health.

"It's a cancer for the country's economy," Swamy said with Jethmalani echoing the same sentiment on the point.

Jethmalani also accused former prime minister Manmohan Singh and his finance minister P. Chidambaram of being involved in "illegal" financial activities.