'Those making noise on black money issue were actually shielding account holders'

Bhopal, Oct 30: After Congress dared BJP government to disclose names of those who have stashed black money, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today said those making noise over the issue were actually shielding such account holders.

He also assured that the Centre was committed to crackdown on those having parked un-taxed money abroad but said the process would take time.

"Those pressurising us to reveal names of people who have stashed black money in foreign banks soon, were actually protecting such account holders. We are in power for just six months. If it was easy, then why Congress had failed to bring it back in the last 50 years," Naidu asked.

The Minister was addressing Madhya Pradesh BJP Karyakarta Sankalp Adhiveshan here ahead of the upcoming local bodies' elections in the state.

"The Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to bring back the black money, but the process will take time because of mutual treaties signed by the earlier governments," he said.

"We will definitely expose the names and Congress will have to suffer because of it," he warned.

Questioning Congress' silence on the issue for long, he asked, "Why Congress had not revealed the names earlier. Are their party leaders' names figuring in it?

"If the names are revealed in a hurry, then it might create problems for the country in future because of number of treaties with other nations," he said.

The issue of making names of foreign bank account holders public, hogged limelight recently when Union Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Opposition party would be embarrassed if such a revelation was made.

Congress, on the other hand, had asked the government to come out with complete information without indulging in selective leaks and said that it is not going to be blackmailed under any such threat.

The Supreme Court too had rapped the Centre and directed it to submit all the names of foreign bank account holders.

PTI