Questions raised in Gujarat’s “Swiss bank” referendum are interesting
Questions raised in Gujarat’s “Swiss bank” referendum are interesting
By our correspondent
Ahmedabad, DeshGujarat, 6 April, 2009
To mobilise, party cadres and general voters, the Gujarat BJP will hold a referendum on the issue of recovering India’s black money deposited in the Swiss banks. The referendum(or you can say it an opinion poll) ballot paper has some interesting and appealing questions:
Do you know that Indian black money is deposited in Swiss Banks?
Yes/No
BJP & Advaniji have expressed their view to bring back black money to India. Do you agree?
Yes/No
Which party can bring back the black money lying in the Swiss Banks?
BJP/Congress
The black money lying in the Swiss Banks is the reason for political instability, corruption & terrorism?
Yes/No
If this black money is back in India then India can pay back all debts & the money will be useful for poors. Do you agree?
Yes/No
The BJP is going to hold a referendum on April 11-12 across the state on 2,000 booths to seek the common people’s opinion on this issue.
Gujarat BJP president Rupala expects a turnout of at least two lakh voters. The ballet boxes will be taken to the district headquarters and the votes will be counted in the presence of prominent people including ex-court judges. The result will be declared on April 14, just before 15 days of election date in Gujarat.
It is very much possible that the BJP in Gujarat will energize it’s poll campaign in last 15 days on Swiss bank issue’s referendum result. Gujarat’s election date is 30th April.
Last week, first in Vadodara and then while inaugurating L.K.Advani’s Gandhinagar constituency central election office, Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi had announced his plan to carry out such referendum in Gujarat.
It should be noted that the BJP is now targeting UPA Prime Minister directly on Swiss Bank black money issue.
How?
Read Shri L.K.Advani’s statement on April 5, 2009 below.
Exactly a week ago, on 29th March, I had addressed a press conference in New Delhi on the issue of “the UPA Government’s deafening silence about Indian wealth, estimated at between Rs. 25 lakh and Rs 70 lakh crore, hoarded in secret Swiss bank accounts and other tax havens around the world.”
The press conference was held in the backdrop of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s visit to London on April 2 to attend the G-20 summit, where, I had stated, the issue was likely to be discussed. The issue was indeed discussed and the final statement of the Summit Leaders affirmed that they would “take action against non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens. We stand ready to deploy sanctions to protect our public finances and financial systems. The era of banking secrecy is over. We note that the OECD has today published a list of countries assessed by the Global Forum against the international standard for exchange of tax information.”
What is surprising is that the Prime Minister did not mention this point in his opening written statement to the press on the conclusion of the G-20 summit. In his lengthy remarks at the official dinner hosted by Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown on April 1 on the occasion of the G-20 meeting, Dr. Singh alluded to this matter in a casual one-sentence reference that said: “We should also endorse sharing information and bringing tax havens and non-cooperating jurisdictions under closer scrutiny.”
The PM failed to raise India’s concerns over the huge quantity of its sovereign wealth deposited in secret bank accounts abroad. He also chose not to express the Indian government’s resolve to bring the monies back through international cooperation. Earlier, at the preparatory meet at Berlin for the G-20 Summit, the Indian delegation did not even talk about tax havens, knowing fully well that it is a major item for the OECD countries.
It is obvious from the final communiqué of the Summit Leaders that other members of G-20 were far more vociferous than India in stating the “era of banking secrecy is over”. They went to the extent of demanding “sanctions” against tax havens. Indeed, on the occasion of the G-20 Summit, OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), a grouping of developed countries, officially released a statement estimating that about $11 trillion (Rs. 550 lakh crore) was parked in tax havens. It also released the blacklist of non-cooperative nations, and specifically mentioned Switzerland among them.
If developed countries in OECD have taken the issue of Swiss bank accounts so seriously, why did the government of a developing country like India not show similar seriousness? Who is in greater need of this stolen wealth – India or OECD countries? Is it the claim of the UPA Government that no corruption and crime money from India is deposited in Swiss banks and other tax havens? Or is it finding it uncomfortable to prise open the veil of secrecy of these tax havens?
In this context, I would like the Prime Minister to release the list of travel destinations of his Cabinet Ministers in the last five years – particularly Switzerland and other tax havens when they were not part of their official tour agenda.
The G-20 statement has vindicated my affirmation in my last week’s press conference that the western nations want strict action against banking secrecy and tax havens. It is sad to see that the Government of India is not enthusiastic.
I only wish to reiterate today that the NDA, if voted to form the next government, will spare no effort to bring Indian wealth back from its secret abodes abroad. For this money belongs to the people of India – the farmers, the landless and the workers, who are in great economic stress today. It can, and will, be deployed for implementing many ambitious anti-poverty schemes and programmes.
Related post
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Narendra Modi’s address on “Why Advani”(VIDEO)
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very good initiative…
please check this question:
Which party can bring back the black money lying in the Swiss Banks?
Yes/No
seems to be some typo error… or incomplete.
Also now on it will be of great importance to keep a track of “visitors” to Switzerland .. they might have already started mobilising techniques to shift their money from Swiss to other “safer” places… taking into account the pressure bjp is building on the Govt…..
Excellent article and the best idea from BJP.
All congressi should be behind the bar soon. Sonia and Rahul along with Lalu, pasavan, amarsinh, arjunsinh, mulayam, karunanidhi should be hang soon.
VANDE MATARAM;
This is a very good issue to touch the people of India. BJP is pressure to Indian government and Swiss government for the black money, not only time of election but countinuosly handle with making a separate commity. It is very good for Indian poor people and Indian economy. UPA government is not aggrasive for this issue.
We hope that Mr. Narendra Modiji handle this issue very well and take a resulte in some year.
‘JAGO BHARAT JAGO, CONGRESS BHAGAVO’
‘VAN-DE-MATRA-M’ [MODIJI].
JAY HIND.
Real bharatiya- You are so right and we need Modi and advani and BJP for the very same reason you mentioned that is- we need to reclaim the glory of india which was 100% hindu and led the world in every aspect befor jehadi and british robbers…we don’t need all the appeasement for Hindus, we need all the masjids and chirches wiped out not just babari….we need those 20% forcefully converted to isalm back in our fold as hey are culurally ], genetically are bharatiyas…we can live with your so definition of Modi and advani not being clean but can’t sustain anymore sickularists, jehadists and missionaries….and Gujarat has shown the way time and again….Sardar patel’s gandhian character made him betray the votes of 11 states congresses to take PMship of independeent india and now we see the results of that betrayal- Nehu dynasty… If you are so proud of being ‘patel’ than prove it by returning back to the the way of life of your forefathers who were brutally converted/persecuted to islam and find your peace in the way of life that people of this great civilization has followed and proved tiem and again in ups and downs over centuries; Yet giving the world decimal system, surgerya nd medicinal system, meullargy and sysem of ship building, Yoga and above all the way of transcending/freedom from the cycle of death and birth called ‘moksha’…..the list is endless. I challenge you to show your guts by reclaiming the true path your forefathers followed for centuries and emancipate from the shackles of islamic persecution/slavery.
Friends of BJP,
I hope next Gov. will bring this Black money back in india before it go for next poll.
But this bring some question for BJP Gujarat.
What they did to get money back from Co-operative bank scandal ?
why they are not showing there progress in Co-operative bank scandal with Swiss black money ??
ha ha ha fools cant indian govt print money.the basic problem with this economy is productivity,that no one realizes.the money from swiss banks will pay back all our debts but then it will skyrocket inflation if productivity is not increased.