Panaji, Feb 25 (IANS) Questioning Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani’s credentials as an anti-corruption crusader, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Saturday asked why he had taken no steps to bring back black money stashed in banks abroad when he was the deputy prime minister.
“So what was the deputy prime minister doing then? Home minister and deputy prime minister, both posts were with him then. So what was he doing about bringing black money back and about corruption all those long years?” Gandhi said in a direct attack on Advani who held the two posts in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.
Advani had done nothing to curb corruption in the “scam ridden government” of which the BJP leader was a part, Gandhi said at a rally here ahead of the March 3 elections to the state legislative assembly.
The Congress chief said her party-led government was trying to bring back black money and rid the country of corruption in a systematic manner.
“Of course, we must do everything in our power to bring back black money which is stashed abroad and to rid our system of corruption. But that is precisely what the Congress-led government is doing methodically, doing with sincerity and in earnest,” she said.
Gandhi also said that instead of pointing fingers at the Congress, it would do them (the BJP) well to look at their own scam ridden government, and singled out corruption in the BJP’s government in Karnataka as an example.
