Advani to focus on black money in his 'yatra', jazzy song composed

Slamming the UPA government on the black money issue, Senior BJP leader LK Advani Sunday said his upcoming anti-corruption yatra will mainly focus on illegal funds stashed abroad by Indians and the urgent need to bring it back home.

Advani also demanded that names of some people who have got money in foreign shores and which is in the know of the government should be made public without any delay.

The former deputy prime minister will go lyrical on black money issue since a jazzy song composed specially for the yatra opens with him reciting a line-- "Thousands of crores of nation's money in foreign banks". He will kick off the 'Jan Chetna Yatra' on Tuesday.

The audio of the four-and-a-half minute long jazzy song sung by Bollywood singer Raja Hasan and directed by film maker Mani Shankar was released at his residence. The number ends with Advani reciting a line to eradicate corruption.

"Though I will raise the issue of rampant corruption, price rise and extreme poverty that exists in the country during my Jan Chetna Yatra, issue of black money stashed away abroad will figure most prominently," he said.

Advani was addressing a gathering of people from the rural areas of Delhi at his residence.

"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.

Congress made light of Advani's focus on the black money issue and asked him to mention one concrete step which the BJP-led NDA government had taken in this matter from 1998 to 2004.

On the contrary, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said he is in a position to give at least 20 "concrete, useful, productive steps" already inplemented by the UPA government which are showing results as far as black money is concerned.

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.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did nothing despite the letter I wrote to him in 2009 on black money. Swiss banks are returning money to US so why not India?"