Advani criticises Mamata for not raising voice against corruption

KOLKATA, October 21, 2011.



Total amount of Indian wealth in foreign banks Rs. 25 lakh-crore\'



Bharatiya Janata Party leader L. K. Advani on Thursday criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee here on Thursday for not speaking out against the unchecked corruption at the Centre.



When the Jan Chetna Yatra launched by him reached the city, he said, "I have known Mamata Banerjee for many years. She speaks her mind freely and on occasion has even criticised us, if we were at fault. But I find that she has not said anything against the Central government with such high-level corruption," Mr. Advani said about his former Cabinet colleague.



This is Mr. Advani\'s first visit to West Bengal since the change of guard in the State government and he observed that "while there has been a change in government, there does not appear to have been any change in the situation."



On the tenth day of his yatra, Mr. Advani said that he was overwhelmed by the response it had generated.



"The fundamental difference between this yatra and my previous five yatras is that on all those yatras I had the support of Atalji (former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee), but his time his ill-health prevented him from coming," he said.



Insisting that the yatra was "not about changing the government" at the Centre, Mr. Advani said that a lot depended on the people of this country if corruption was to be checked and the black money stashed away in tax havens abroad was to be brought back to the country.



He said that according to some estimates, the total amount of Indian wealth in foreign banks estimated at Rs. 25 lakh crore.



"If a Rs. 1.76 lakh crore scam in the 2G Spectrum allocation, can generate such an upheaval, imagine what such a huge amount of money can achieve," he said adding that in his opinion that the money recovered should not be spent on the urban areas, but used to usher development in the villages of India.



BJP national general secretaries Ravi Shankar Prasad and Kiran Maheshwariand party spokespersonSyed Shahnawaz Hussain were also present.



Mr.. Prasad said that he was very proud to be visiting the city after "the Allahabad High Court has accepted that Ayodhya is the birthplace of Ram Lalla."



"Some people have taken the matter to the Supreme Court. We shall ensure that the remaining land be also awarded to us," Mr. Prasad said referring to the three-way distribution of the disputed land, one part of which has been given to the Sunni Waqf Board.


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