Ananth Kumar slams Rahul, calls for open debate on blackmoney

Union minister Ananth Kumar on Wednesday challenged Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for an open debate on the issue of black money.

"The Congress is synonymous with black money, corruption and scams," the Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister alleged while talking to reporters on Wednesday evening.

He alleged that scams like 2G spectrum auction, coal block allocation, and the chopper deal, among others, collectively worth Rs 12 lakh crore, had taken place during the 10-year rule of the UPA government between 2004 and 2014.

"Today, Rahul baba is touring Gujarat... He is seen only in Gujarat (campaigning) and there he is speaking about demonetisation and GST. I challenge Shri Rahul Gandhi to come for an open debate and open discussion on the issue of black money, on the issue of 10 years of scams and corruption of the UPA government," Kumar said.

"I will not say the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh... but it was led by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi because they were guiding and dictating it and indulged in scams of Rs 12 lakh crore which is all black money," the minister said.

Kumar, a BJP MP from Bengaluru, said that on 8 November last year the Modi government took a historic decision against black money in the country by way of demonetisation. "People who have lost black money are observing 'black day'," he said.

The minister said that around 1.5 lakh people deposited over Rs 4.92 lakh crore during the demonetisation, which is one-third of total cash/currency deposited. "How come such a small section amass such huge unaccounted money," he asked.

According to him, in the last one year (post-demonetisation) the stone pelting incidents in Kashmir came down to 639 from 2,683 reported during November 2015 to November 2016. Similarly, Left-wing extremism incidents decreased post-note ban and came down to 831 from 1,071 during the same period.

The Modi government has closed around 2.24 lakh shell companies in the last one year, which were having a huge number of bank accounts, he said, adding that 58,000 bank accounts belonging to 35,000 companies revealed that they deposited Rs 17,000 crore and also withdrew Rs 17,000 crore and now all of them are under the net.

PTI