Advani says party had cautioned Yeddyurappa

Nagpur, Oct 18: Under fire from the Congress over B S Yeddyurappa's arrest, BJP leader L K Advani today (Oct 18) admitted that "small mistakes" were embarrassing the party leadership which had cautioned the former Karnataka Chief Minister on the developments.

"The party had cautioned Yeddyurappa on the developments," Advani told reporters here replying to a volley of questions on the arrest of former Karnataka CM on graft charges.

"Small mistakes by others was embarrassing the party leadership. There may be chances of a slip up so I am telling every one in the party to remain vigilant," he said without directly naming the ex-CM for his alleged involvement in the mining scam.

On black money and steps taken by the BJP-led NDA government in the past to bring it back, Advani said the laws were stringent at that time and banks in Switzerland were not parting with any information.

He said it was only after serious economic crisis that European countries particularly Germany sought the list of black money depositors and subsequently obtained it. It contained about 2000 names of which 500 belonged to Germany, he said.

Accusing the UPA government on the issue, Advani said the German government that time expressed its willingness to share it with those countries approaching it. "The Indian Government did approach it and secure the list but that was neither made public nor efforts made to bring back the black money stashed there," Advani said.

PTI