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Pricing the loot

The media have gone to town over Indian money in Swiss bank accounts and the immediate trigger has certainly been L.K. Advani’s press statement of March 29. Since there is discussion without checking facts, let’s first have a quote from the Advani press release. “The extent of illicit money lod ....Read more

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swiss bank moneyBy: rajender parshad | Sunday , 5 Apr '09 12:01:51 PM Reply | Forward congress and manmohan singh have proved that they have no right to rule the country. they have no answer to the issues advani is raising, so they try to dodge them. advani calls for live debate on tv; manmohan offers no comment to this; rather points out what advani did or did not do. why don't you come and have a debate in front of tv camera? this itself proves you are Weak. advani says raise the issue of lakhs of croresof Indian citizens stashed in swiss banks at the G-20 summit. congress raises din over other issues. whatever was done or not done by anybody, why don't you want to bring this money back? the only answer is that much of it belongs to you.

Debroy is a Swiss AgentBy: Arun | Friday , 3 Apr '09 12:57:01 PM Reply | Forward If the tax havens and Swiss accounts were not important at all, do you think the G20 heads will waste their time on deliberating on this issue or put it on the communique strongly? Obviously, Debroy is trying to cover up some people.

WHO IS THE RICH INDIAN HOARDER?By: B.V.SHENOY | Friday , 3 Apr '09 12:19:08 PM Reply | Forward Bibek Debroy has tried to argue that all the talk about illicit hoarding in Swiss banks as articulated by Advani is so much hot air and the figure is insignificant. This is perfectly in tune with the line taken by the ruling congress party. What is being obfuscated is the nature of the hoard. It is mostly sale proceeds of terror, drugs, arms and outflow of corruption related funds from within India. More than the total amount itself, it is the names of the hoarders in the customer rolls of the Swiss banks that is going to stump the ruling government classes.

crorepati public servants vs poor electroate bossesBy: Indian | Friday , 3 Apr '09 12:10:29 PM Reply | Forward Who said India is a poor country? After all, some of its citizens have dumped 5.7 trillion in Swiss and Lichenstien banks and our govt run by some crorepatis also in the fray. Take a look on daily news. Nominees for LS Poll are disclosing their wealth and 30 - 40% are crorepatis accroding to their self assessement and having political family background. Hats off for their truthfulness but there are some politicians having six decades of political service and having nothing in their pocket according to their statement, whcih is very much contrast. These crorepatis assume them as public servant are merely 2-3% of the total population and are going to serve 97% of the poor electorate of our country. How we would expect these crorepatis will expose the wealth dumped in foreign banks. Just go and vote and stay wait for freebies and false promises which are very common in each and every election and just forget.

Jai Ho !By: Indian | Friday , 3 Apr '09 10:37:40 AM Reply | Forward Who should be blamed? Corrupted Politricians or the corrupted people accustomed to sell their vote for some freebies like cheap colour TV sets, some cash (Says some 100s) , sarees, dhothis and false promises who even not bothered about the value of their ballot and the finance ministries when all of the western countries insisted the Swiss and Lichenstien banks to return the money deposited by their corrupted citizens and got it done while our country even dont want to put a step forward, becasue all are corrupted and all their money would be exposed and they not dare to do that. Jai Ho ! Corrupted democracy

Tax havensBy: Sumedha | Friday , 3 Apr '09 10:29:07 AM Reply | Forward SirI would not have expected you to argue as an apologist of tax havens. Of course they exist and of course a great deal of money is parked in tax havens. The actual figure may be a matter of discussion but its significance is not in doubt. Ignore 'foreign' sources for the moment, a simple study of the Form 15 H data from the Income tax department should give you an idea of the magnitude, single transactions of above 400 crores are not uncommon. The exact legality of off shore tax havens is also very much up for debate, no Double taxation agreements set them down as legal, it is only the intransigence of these tax havens which blocks investigation.Are you indeed arguing for tax havens? If so I would like to know why.

Swiss BankBy: Avinash Baranwal | Friday , 3 Apr '09 7:48:57 AM Reply | Forward Why didn't Advani acted on it when BJP was in power? - This should be the biggest question. and when we could not retrieve money from all the scams, it is ridiculous to think that we can get it easily from Swiss Banks. God knows what we do and how we think...

Save country from 'Gandhis'By: Dee | Friday , 3 Apr '09 4:22:34 AM Reply | Forward Way to go!! Get the money of all these creepy and so called secular Congressis who are selling the country to western and Middle Eastern animals. 60 years of Gandhi torture on India is enough - corruption, population, terrorism and illiteracy are the alias names of Gandhi family.

Pricing the lootBy: J. Jayaraman | Friday , 3 Apr '09 4:11:44 AM Reply | Forward Some newspaper writers referred to many middle class Indians visiting foreign countries and expressing doubt about their income etc. forgetting that almost all of these people have nearest relations in foreign countries and such non=residents have sponsorred their visits. Instead these newspaper reporters should have concentrated their search on big shots who might have stashed their illegal monies overseas. So blaming Advani alone for statements re: stasing away of funds is only a lame excuse by newspaper writers to hide their own faults.

The lootBy: The All Knowing | Friday , 3 Apr '09 2:01:35 AM Reply | Forward This issue is definitely not "unimportant". Crooked politicians and corrupt government employees have stashed away billions (if not trillions) of dollars in Swiss bank accounts. If the world is honest about wanting to alleviate poverty and end corruption in governance, the Swiss authorities should make public the names (only) of account holders. The government of India then can ask its citizens the source of that money. If the sources are legitimate, there's no problem. If the owners cannot explain the source of the money, it should be confiscated.

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