Advani to raise issue of Black Money during Yatra

Adavni was addressing a gathering of people from the rural areas of Delhi at his residence. The function was held to felicitate him ahead of the yatra which begins on October 11. "For the last so many years, I have been saying that huge sums of Indian money has been stashed away abroad in foreign banks, especially in Switzerland," Advani said. He recalled that during the erstwhile NDA government, the issue was taken up with the Swiss authorities but the latter expressed their inability to return the money or share information due to their banking secrecy laws.

"People generally ask us as to what we did about black money when we were in power for six years. I tell them before this the Swiss government never allowed us to access the information," he said. However, due to pressure from the US and European countries, the laws were changed and Switzerland allowed access to these banking details.

"In 2009, I had rigorously raised the issue of black money during Lok Sabha elections and before that I wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that when the banks in Switzerland, despite their banking secrecy laws, are returning money to other countries like America and Germany, why can`t India get its money back?" Advani asked.