Swiss bank accounts of Indians - Will BJP ask

[drbsellappan]

News in Times of India.

Zurich’s bank accounts now that Switzerland has bowed to international pressure to end the era of no-questions-asked banking.Under pressure from the US and other troubled economies, the Swiss government announced on Friday that it would cooperate in international tax investigations, breaking with its long-standing tradition of protecting wealthy foreigners accused of hiding billions of dollars. Austria and Luxembourg also said they would help.

We all know that corruption is a Big headache in India.But what has BJP done against it-Nothing-That is what public thinks.The above is an oppurtunity to prove in front of the voters that BJP takes tough stand against corruption.[u]Will the BJP ask the swiss banks to make public the account details of the Indians.We all know that there are billions of taxpayers money in these banks.That is my money and everyones money.If the BJP takes that step then an educated person like me will be convenced that your ultimate aim to stop corruption

[randheer_singh]

This could be left parties agenda not BJP's, Opposition will accuse BJP of witch Hunting. Like they worked between 1998-2004 they should work same with almost zero negative thoughts and policies.This will only benefit India.
http://www.4octave.com/

[pankajprangani]

BJP's stand on this swiss bank issue should be clear and let BJP also demand for the same. BJP also should promise to the people of India that , if BJP comes to power, the BJP gov will take IMMEDIATE & URGENT necessary action to bring back our money which were being illegaly earned and stashed abroad, and/or used for money laundering by politicians/businessmens and others

[leaopt]

Dear Advaniji,
Can there be a categorical promise that the BJP , when it is voted to power now, will do the needful to expose the people who have the money in the swiss banks and bring it back and make use of it to improve the infrastructure of the country in Primary Education or Health Care?? So many people are expressing their opinion here regarding this subject , that it should be appropriate for you , as our leader, to reassure us that this will be done. Will this be done, Ji.
regards,

[revathiroy]

Respected Advaniji

As an honest tax paying citizen of this country, a proud Indian, our hope is that the BJP will definitely ask the Swiss Banks to provide details for all deposits from India.

We read so many articles that this amount from India if brought back to the Indian Economy will help reduce the huge national deficit that the UPA has created.

I still recollect the "Walk the Talk" show on May 13th 2004 with Chidambaram on Aaj Tak when he stated that he had to admit that he was inheriting a very good economy and that India would only grow from strength to strength from hereon. I thought I was seeing a new Chidambaram and had much hopes pinned to his statement. He has only confirmed what he further said that he would have to do something dramatically wrong to reverse the situation- and the current economic situation in India just proves that.

Revathi Roy- Chennai

[leaopt]

Dear Advaniji,
Can there be a categorical promise that the BJP , when it is voted to power now, will do the needful to expose the people who have the money in the swiss banks and bring it back and make use of it to improve the infrastructure of the country in Primary Education or Health Care?? So many people are expressing their opinion here regarding this subject , that it should be appropriate for you , as our leader, to reassure us that this will be done. Will this be done, Ji.
regards,

Dear Sir,
I feel that giving a categorical promise to expose the people who have the money in the swiss banks and bring it back to the country and taking this message to each and every citizen in the country, with a hand out in the vernacular languages will surely pay rich dividends to the BJP in the coming elections. Already e-mails on this subject are doing the rounds from some citizen groups and BJP should take the lead in doing the exposure of the crime against the country. Hope this doesnot fall on deaf ears !!!!!!!!
regards,

[leaopt]

Dear Friends,

I am happy to inform you that the views expressed in this forum are being heard by the top rung leaders. Regarding the topic of Unaccounted Indian money in Swiss Banks, Sri. Advaniji , in a press conference in the capital today has promised to bring this money to the country, if the NDA comes to power.

I quote Sri Advaniji's own words- " If the NDA gets the mandate, we will pursue this matter at legal and executive levels and force such Indians to bring back their money from foreign countries and allow it to be used in India"

Cheer up , guys and keep posting your sincere views and ideas.
regards,

Important : Just for the forum's information, there was a interactive meet organized by us in Delhi with Sri Ravi Shankar Prasad, yesterday. On behalf of the forum members, I put before Ravi Shankar ji, the question about money in Swiss bank. He responded positively & within 24 hours, Advani ji made the announcement. So, this one goes to you guys. You get the credit ! - Moderator

[leaopt]

Full text of Sri. Advaniji's speech , courtesy rediff.com:

At a press conference in New Delhi [Images] on Sunday, Senior Bharatiya Janata Party [Images] leader and the National Democratic Alliance's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani [Images] questioned the United Progressive Alliance's 'deafening silence about Indian wealth', estimated at between Rs. 25 lakh and Rs 70 lakh crore, hoarded in secret Swiss bank accounts.

Advani claimed that the money was a mix of 'political bribes, crime money and venal business'.

This is the full text of his speech:

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh [Images] is going to attend the G-20 summit in London [Images] on April 2. Ahead of this meeting, I wish to bring a highly important matter to the attention of the people of India.

It is well known that Swiss banks provide secrecy and safety for tax evaders, corrupt individuals and criminals of various nationalities to hoard their monies. Several offshore tax havens are also used for murky financial dealings. The extent of illicit money lodged in Swiss banks is mind-boggling. Estimates vary.

According to Wikipedia, they totaled $ 2.6 trillions (Rs. 130 lakh crores in today's exchange rate) in 2001. In 2007, they were believed to be about $5.7 trillions (Rs. 285 lakh crore), a staggering 80% increase in six years.

It is equally well known that many wealthy Indians have deposited their illicit monies in secret Swiss bank accounts and tax havens elsewhere around the world. As per credible estimates, these amounts range between $500 billion (Rs. 25,00,000 crore) and $1400 billion (Rs. 70,00,000 crore).

So long as the West-dominated world economy was doing well for the western countries, their governments winked at the secretive functioning of Swiss banks and tax havens. However, the current global economic crisis, which put several of their important financial institutions on the verge of collapse, has forced them to take many unconventional steps to revive their ailing economies.

The leaders of France [Images], Germany [Images], UK and other countries have joined forces with the US President Barack Obama [Images] in the battle against tax havens. They are mounting pressure on Switzerland [Images] and offshore tax havens to put an end to banking secrecy to bring back their tax-evading citizens' hidden wealth.

This is likely to be an important point on the agenda of the G-20 Summit in London. In February, UBS, the largest Swiss bank, was forced by the US tax authorities to reveal the names of some 300 presumed tax evaders. The US threatened to sue the UBS. Fearing that this could lead to the demise of the bank, the Swiss authorities invoked an emergency clause in their banking law and gave the data to the US. Soon thereafter the Obama administration announced a law to uncover illicit American money in all secretive tax havens, including the Switzerland.

UPA government's evasive reply to my earlier demand

It is baffling that, in the face of this growing governmental activism in the West, the UPA Government has adopted a policy of deafening silence and inaction. It has taken no steps whatsoever to get information about illicit money kept abroad by Indian nationals and to strive to get it back.

Last year, I had written a letter to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh about the need to get the names of Indians, presumed to have secret accounts in LGT Bank in Liechtenstein in Germany. I was disappointed to see that the reply I received from the then Union Finance Minister was evasive. (Copies of both letters attached.)

Commenting on India's ambivalence, Transparency International (TI) said that India has maintained "a stoic silence over the issue and has not approached the German government for this data'' (The Economic Times, 25.5.2008). Some ministers in the UPA Government are reported to have made several trips to Switzerland as the personal leg of their official tours abroad.

Considering the size of the Indian wealth hoarded abroad, the government is duty-bound to take proactive steps to bring it back. The amount involved constitutes 3-10 times India's overseas debt, and 50-120% of India's GDP. Even if we take the lower limit of the estimated amount of Rs. 25 lakh crore, the money is sufficient to:

� Relieve the debts of all farmers and landless
� Build world-class roads all over the country � from national and state highways to district and rural roads;
� Completely eliminate the acute power shortage in the country and also to bring electricity to every unlit rural home;
� Provide safe and adequate drinking water in all villages and towns in India
� Construct good-quality houses, each worth Rs. 2.5 lakh, for 10 crore families;
� Provide Rs. 4 crore to each of the nearly 6 lakh villages; the money can be used to build, in every single village, a school with internet-enabled education, a primary health centre with telemedicine facility, a veterinary clinic, a playground with gymnasium, and much more.

What a transformation it can make to the ordinary and poor Indian lives!

Financial RDX with terror links

The need to put an end to hoarding of Indian wealth abroad, and to bring back the wealth already hoarded, is all the greater since the illicit money seems to be a mix of political bribes, crime money and venal business. The money trail in the Bofors scam in the 1980s had revealed the involvement of secret Swiss bank accounts. Last year, when the stock market was booming, National Security Advisor Shri M.K. Narayanan publicly stated that terror money might be operating through fund flows. What he had in mind was the Participatory Note [PN] mechanism for investment of undisclosed funds from abroad in Indian stock markets. The PN mechanism was introduced when India was desperately in need of forex inflow. The UPA government has permitted this mode of investment even after it had grown to alarming proportions. More recently, a hawala operator from Pune was found by the Income Tax department to have unaccounted wealth valued at Rs 35,000 crore. He is also suspected to have secret bank accounts abroad.

The BJP sees in secret banking the RDX that has the potential not only to blow up national financial systems but also to support and fund global terror networks whose attacks on India increased during the UPA regime. We do not expect any action from the UPA Government, which has shown total disinclination to act in this matter. In any case, its days are numbered.

If the people of India elect a BJP-led NDA Government in May 2009, we assure the nation that India will join the global effort to put an end to banking secrecy and intensify it by every means � diplomatic, political and economic � to get back the real Sovereign Wealth of our country. The BJP will intensely and actively educate the public opinion on this issue and take it to the masses and create intense public pressure on the system to uncover this nexus between secret foreign money, terror, and politics.

BJP's promise and plan of action

1. The Bharatiya Janata Party will conduct mass public opinion polls on April 6, 2009, Foundation Day of the BJP, on Indian money in secret accounts abroad.

2. The Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled States will write to the Prime Minister urging him to write to the Swiss and other authorities to disclose the names of hoarders of Indian monies abroad, since it is a huge loss to the state exchequer.

3. The BJP will form a Task Force comprising experts in law, accounting, management and intelligence to prepare a strategic document for India to recommend ways to get back the national wealth stashed away illegally by the corrupt politicians, venal businessmen and criminal overlords. Shri S. Gurumurthy, well-known chartered accountant and writer specializing in investigative journalism; Dr. R. Vaidyanathan, Professor of Finance at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; Shri Mahesh Jethmalani, a renowned lawyer; and Shri Ajit Doval, an acclaimed national security expert, have agreed to work voluntarily on this Task Force.

[Anita Gupta]

SWISS BANKS’ ACCOUNTS- CONGRESS CONNECTION?

Sir,

On the demand of Mr. L.K.Advani to raise the issue of black money of Indians in Swiss Banks during G-20 summit and to take steps to recall that money, the Congress leader, Mr. Kapil Sibal’s statement shows his utter frustrations. He said that why Mr. Adavni is raising the issue in elections only and why he himself did nothing as Home Minister.
Mr. Sibal has perhaps forgotten that before becoming FM in 1991, Mr. Man Mohan Singh had himself opined that India did not require any loan from international agencies if the Indians’ money in Swiss Banks is recalled. But neither as FM for five years nor as PM for another five years, Dr. Singh did not do anything in the matter though besides himself, he had a battery of financial experts in his team.
It has to be remembered that USA, Germany and other countries are getting information from Swiss government and arresting their nationals. But unfortunately, UPA government has shown lukewarm response to the suggestion. Is it because the Congress has ruled for 45 years and therefore maximum number of people having Swiss accounts is close to Congress?

(ANITA GUPTA)
29th March, 2009

Submitted to PIONEER/HT/I.E/E.T

[narenkaushal]

This issue is not a trivial or small one, India is a poor and underdeveloped nation even after 62 years of Independence is because of this black money taken out of India by corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, criminals, dishonest bussinessmen etc since Independence. Those who have taken this Black money out of India are traitors and worst enemies of Indian, Each Indian is looted by these corrupt people and poor, ignorant , sentimental , common Indian people are silent spectators . In the case of other corrupt foreign national the illegal money from other countries is taken to their home country, which comes into use of their home country , thus money remains within their own country, but in case of corrupt Indian the money taken to foriegn bank is an act of treachery .

[b]You can put these Indian corroupt people , who have taken black money out of India and deposited in the Swiss Bank, at Par with Nadir Shah of Iran who had plundered India and taken huge wealth to Iran , and for Iran he is true patriotic because he has taken wealth to his home country. You can say that these corrupt Indian People are worst than even Nadir Shah of Iran, because atleast he has done a great service ot his homeland , We Indian are too ignorant and weak to bring back this money because the sincere and strong people who can bring back this money never get power . It is the duty of Each Indian to stand up for this cause, because this is his or her personal cause also ,[/b] ,if one can understand basic principles of economics. Vote Support Sh.l..K. Advani Ji and BJP for Your own cause .