Citing pre-poll claims made by top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress today accused the ruling party of "misleading" the country on the issue of black money for political benefits and demanded an apology.
Initiating the debate on the issue, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said Modi had "played" with people's emotions during Lok Sabha election campaign saying that every person will get Rs 15 lakh once illegal money stashed away in banks abroad is brought back.
He said BJP leaders had promised to bring back black money from abroad within 100 days of coming to power.
"Now you have become Prime Minister. You have all the power. I do not want to pain you but remind you," he said, while noting that not a single penny has been brought back.
The debate under Rule 193, which does not entail voting, was taken up a day after the opposition vociferously raised the issue in both Houses of Parliament in an attempt to corner the government and wanted an urgent discussion.
Targeting the government, Kharge referred to government's contention in Supreme Court that it could not disclose names of all suspect account holders due to treaties with foreign countries, he said its stand was similar to that of the UPA.
"If you are sad to say the same thing, then why did you defame the UPA government. You misled 125 crore people... You were in power earlier also. You know the difficulties of a government. You have an opportunity today to apologise to people for speaking untruth and making false promises," he said.
He said various BJP leaders put the estimated sum of black money at different level with Rajnath Singh, now Home Minister, and Nitin Gadkari, now Transport Minister, claiming it to be Rs 25 lakh crore and Rs 21 lakh crore respectively.
"Does country benefit by inciting people's sentiments?... You should speak with balance in public," he said.
In his speech, BJP member Anurag Thakur hit out at Congress over its attempts to "save" those with foreign accounts having black money and said the first Cabinet decision BJP government took after coming to power was to constitute an SIT to probe it, something which Congress had been "avoiding" all the time.
