Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Saturday challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders to make a declaration that they have no black money stashed either in India or abroad, and said the difficulty with the main opposition party and its "various pretenders and prime ministerial aspirants is that there is a huge gap and deficit between their rhetoric and their delivery".
Tewari, who was reacting to BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's criticism of the UPA Government for ordering excavation around a medieval fort site in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, said the Bharatiya Janata Party, their chief ministers and their Members of Parliament and their legislators should make a declaration that they have no black money stashed either in India or abroad.
"And if at all, they have any such black money, that should be forfeited and confiscated by the government; we would start believing that they actually walk the talk. The difficulty with the Bharatiya Janata Party and its various pretenders and prime ministerial aspirants is that there is a huge gap, a huge deficit between their rhetoric and their delivery. So, therefore, you have this tendency of people shooting from the hip, tilting at windmills but not actually walking the talk," said Tewari.
"We have had the Bharatiya Janata Party talk about the question of black money now for four years, but have they stepped up to the plate. Have their leaders decided that they would unilaterally suo-moto make a declaration that none of them has any black money in India. And if at all, there is any black money, it can be confiscated and forfeited by the Income Tax authorities and the other statutory authorities. So, therefore, I think you need to lead by example rather than making mere sanctimonious statements," he added.
Modi yesterday taunted the Congress-led UPA Government for ordering excavation around a medieval fort site in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, for rumoured 1,000 tonnes of gold.
"The whole world is making fun of us. Someone dreamt of it and the Central government has gone hunting for 1,000 tonnes of gold. The black money of all the corrupt people is stored in Swiss banks, worth more than 1,000 tonnes of gold. They should first get that back," he said in Chennai.
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Modi said if the Central Government was capable of getting back black money stored in foreign banks, it would not have heaped humiliation on the country in the form of a gold hunt.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is excavating a medieval fort near Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, after a local hermit Yogi Swami Shobhan Sarkar said that he had dreamt that 1000 tonnes of gold is buried under the ruins of a palace-cum-fort.
Local villagers and followers of the hermit said that they completely believe his prediction about the hidden gold, but expressed disappointed at the slow pace of work.
The hermit had reportedly written to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) suggesting that this treasure could be used to help the country recover from its economic slowdown.
Earlier on Thursday, the ASI had sent a team of archaeologists to the village of Daundia Khera in Uttar Pradesh to dig two 100-square-metre blocks by the side the palace fort.