Post date: Jan 19, 2011 12:53:36 PM
Ram Jethmalani, India's former Law Minister, insists that the names of those involved in stashing black money in Swiss bank should be disclosed for the greater good of the country.
NEW DELHI, INDIA (JANUARY 19, 2011) ANI - Ram Jethmalani, India's former Law Minister, on Wednesday (January 19) insisted that the names of those involved in stashing black money in Swiss bank should be disclosed for the greater good of the country.
Jethmalani made these remarks on the sideline of a petition filed by him and others in the Indian Supreme Court in this case.Disclosing the particulars of his demand, he said that confidentiality should not be maintained in such serious matter.
"My contentions in Court are that you must disclose all the correspondence that you have had in securing the names that you already have. If you produce that correspondence it will show that those who gave the information and the names of the culprits involved did not insist on any confidentiality. The confidentiality is a buck-bear which you have invented to prevent people from knowing the truth," said Jethmalani.
He further said that the culprits should be brought to book and their illegally amassed wealth should be utilized for greater good.
"Those who are the culprits and have cheated on the nation and done dacoity or robbery, we need that property back. There is so much abundance that if it comes to the country, it would eliminate the poverty from our country. Every Indian family would get around Rs. 2-2.5 lakhs ($4,398-$ 5,498). And our budget could become tax free for almost 30 years," said Jethmalani.
Earlier, India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had also asked the federal government on Tuesday (January 18) made similar demand to make public names of Indians who have stashed unaccounted money in Swiss banks.
The Swiss banks are said to have the highest deposits by Indians. This fact was exposed after Swiss banks were forced by the US and other Western countries to disclose the details of their nationals who maintain accounts with them.
The issue has again been raked up by the BJP, as the opposition parties try to keep up the pressure on the government over multi-million dollar corruption scandals including the Telecom scam and the sloppy work in the Commonwealth Games related projects.