Indore, June 10: BJP Vice President, Shanta Kumar, here today said that social activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Baba Ramdev had to come forward on the issue of corruption and black money because political parties in the country had failed.
Tackling these issues was actually the job of the political parties, he said.
“I admit that this is a failure of political parties in tackling these two issues,” the senior BJP leader said. When asked whether the main opposition, BJP, too failed in raising these issues effectively, he said that his party had raised this issue vociferously, but if something more was needed to be done, it would do some introspection about it. The black money stashed away abroad was “biggest loot in the history of the world”, he said, calling owners of the money “traitors”.
Kumar alleged that the government did not take enough steps at the international level for bringing back the black money.
When asked about Leader of Opposition, Sushma Swaraj's dance at Rajghat, he said that there was no point making hue and cry about it, as it might lead to shifting of focus from the issue of black money.
Replying to a query, Shanta Kumar said that if the government finds any discrepancies in the Trusts associated with Baba Ramdev, then it is empowered to take legal action against them, but it appears that the Centre has started finding faults with these Trusts only when confronted on the issue of black money.
When asked about Congress calling Baba Ramdev as the ‘agent' of the BJP and RSS, he retorted that there was nothing wrong (on the part of RSS or BJP) in supporting a person who has raised the issue of black money and corruption.
“RSS is a prestigious organisation of the country and is not a Pakistani institution,” he remarked. PTI
