AITC MP and Chief Whip in Rajya Sabha, Derek O'Brien today criticised the Centre for failing to fulfill its promises on bringing back black money. He said that the BJP is only great at advertising campaigns, not in fulfilling promises.
Mr O'Brien laid a note from the PMO on the table of the House which said, “The arrangements in place do not reveal any intention to retrieve black money”.
He said that BJP made a promise of bringing black money back within 100 days and even after 180 days they have done nothing.
This is a debate much beyond black money and the reason my party the Trinamool Congress has been in the forefront of the movement is because we believe black money leads to money power; money power leads to muscle power. Muscle power and money power together is a toxic combination in a Parliamentary democracy.
Six months ago to the date there was this multi-billion dollar advertising campaign for a product, I am not objecting to that, the product was called BJP the Bharitya Janta Product. They ran this campaign and it is their prerogative to run it and they made certain promises in those campaigns.
But before that people had also made more promises. Like the Hon'ble LK Advani ji had made a statement on the floor of the House there saying there were 29 lakh crore and the Government will disclose 900 names. But bless Advani ji, no one takes him seriously there also, so leave that aside.
The Hon'ble Venkaiah ji made a speech here on August 13, 2012 and I quote him: “The names of the foreign account holders will be made public and I demand a time bound assurance from the Government.” But Venkaiah Ji is also an honourable man, so no one would take him very seriously.
The Prime Minister, now Prime Minister, that time chief campaigner… Someone told me there's confusion, whether it's the PM or the BM, after I tell you this story you will know why, what is BM.
Promises were made then, 180 days are over now, now they have called us for a Short Duration discussion. I am not in the least interested in a Short Duration discussion, because today they will have a Short Duration discussion and tomorrow it will be forgotten. We will not forget, the country will not forget.
And the gentlemen who spoke on behalf of the BJP – now I am beginning to wonder why they did not make him the Chief Minister prospective of the State – he promised in his speech, so I presume it is the BJP's position that in hundred days they could not bring it back.
Sir, I have accessed through the media a note from the Prime Minister's office dated September 10, 2014. Sir the note is here and to quote the most important part from the note: “It is mentioned the arrangements in place do not reveal any intention to retrieve the black money.”
This is not a note from the Trinamool Congress; this is from the PMO in September. My direct charge to the BJP and the Finance Minister is that tell me this note is false, tell me this is a fake note and I will sit down.
This is our first charge; you have no intention of bringing this money back, your own PMO says that. That is why you are no more PM. You are now BM; you are a bluff master. You are a great advertisement campaigner you are not delivering on a single promise. With the permission of the Chair I will lay it.
Anyone who makes a promise and does not deliver is a bluff master. I will say it again and I will say it again. Desh ko gumrah kiya.
Next point Sir. BJP ne bola, that you have International agreements, and because of these International agreements BJP said you cannot bring this money back.
Do not hide behind this bilateral agreements – the person from the BJP is trying to convince me because we want black money to come back the petrol and diesel prices are going up, this kind of logic. Please read from page 66 of the White paper in May 2012 which you are now parroting as your new one.
I will only quote, the then Prime Minister is here, two lines. This is about the repatriation of the black money; I am no friend of the Congress as you know. “The only exception is the provision under the United Nations Convention against Corruption where undisclosed assets representing corruption money can be ceased and repatriated.”
So our demand is to please give those names because if you do not give those names then you are hiding behind the cloud.
Now the next point, there is one Herve Falciani, he has gone on record in the Indian media, he is willing and I quote, “He has only given out 1% of the original data, he still has 99% of the original data,” and “if India asks tomorrow, we will send a proposal tomorrow”.
What is holding this Government back to give out those names, because I will tell you he says this one, one week after he says this he quotes, “Prime Minister Modi made a strong pitch at the G20 Summit in Brisbane. For close coordination amongst nations, in transparency and efforts to receive the black money.”
So my charge is if there is a public document made by the whistle blower what is holding this Government back to bring this money back? I can't understand one good reason why they do not want to bring this money back.
Sir, this is not only because what is happening here, you yourself have admitted today on the floor of the House that real estate and stock market has gone up. Now here is my last proposition and then I will finish.
How does this work? This works like this. The unaccounted for money is sent through Hawala. After it goes to Hawala it reaches tax havens. After tax havens they reach the FII route. In the FII routes there are participatory notes. What is your Government's policy on participatory notes?
The SEBI wants to cancel participatory notes. What they couldn't do, you are talking and still can't do. Cancel participatory notes. Why, because when this money comes back, it is used for real estate, for the stock exchange, and it is also used to fund advertising big election promises are made. Big billions of dollars are spent and those are very easy promises you make promises and in true BJP style you break promises.
