Stepping up pressure on the UPA Government over the black money stashed in secret accounts of the Swiss banks,the BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani on Sunday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to release a list of his Cabinet ministers who visited Switzerland without any official purpose. Reiterating that Rs 25-70 crore were stashed in various foreign bank accounts by Indian citizens,Advani assured the people that if voted to power,the NDA Government would bring the wealth back to the country. This money belonged to the poor farmers,the landless and the workers of India who were in acute financial distress today,he said here while he was on his way to Degloor of Nanded district to address an election rally of the BJP-Shiv Sena candidate Sambhaji Pawar. The BJP senior leader said he had written a letter to the Prime Minister on the issue and had also taken it up at a press conference in New Delhi against the backdrop of the PM's visit to the G20 summit in London. What is surprising is that the PM did not mention this point in his opening statement to the press on the conclusion of the G20 summit. Later,in his lengthy speech at the official dinner hosted by Britain's PM Gordon Brown,Singh alluded to this matter casually, he added. Advani said as the PM had failed to take up this matter with the global community,he should release the details of the travel destinations of his Cabinet ministers in the last five years,mentioning in particular the trips to Switzerland and other tax havens,which were not part of official tours. He asked why India did not take up the issue of Swiss banks while the developed countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development had treated the issue with due seriousness.
