The Congress on Wednesday asked the Modi government not to resort to “blackmail” on the issue of naming black-money holders and dared it to come out with full information without indulging in “selective leakage”. “Congress is not going to be blackmailed under any such threat... Do not try to blackmail us. Strictest possible action should be taken against whoever is involved in it but that should not be inspired by vindictiveness and it should also not be half-truths,” said Congress general secretary Ajay Maken in response to finance minister Arun Jaitley’s remarks of Tuesday that disclosure of names of those holding illegal foreign accounts would embarrass the Opposition party.
Mr Maken said the government should not limit the declaration of names only to 136 individuals. “We want to tell the BJP and the Prime Minister that a half-truth is not the truth. They should not go for selective and vindictive leakages. They should come out with all the names,” said the Congress leader. At the AICC briefing, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi asked the BJP government “not to threaten the Congress”. “It is not going to have an impact. Do not issue threats to us in reply to our questions. Do not insult the intelligence of the people by first protecting black money account holders and then suggesting that it has been done by somebody else,” he said.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the government intends to tell the Supreme Court that it will make all those names public against whom charges are being filed on the issue of black money stashed abroad.
The NDA government has come under criticism from Opposition parties for telling the Supreme Court on October 17 that it could not disclose such details given by countries with which India has double taxation avoidance agreements.
Mr Jaitley said India got this list of names from Germany under a treaty which said that “you can’t use these names for political purpose” and cannot disclose these names until charges have to be filed. He said that there could be some NRIs who hold legitimate accounts. He said that while charges will be filed against those who illegally stashed money abroad, the government “can’t defame others whose accounts are not illegal”.
“All we said is that those account details which are filed in court will be made public. The Supreme Court should not declare that all accounts should be made available to somebody who declares it public,” said Mr Jaitley.