Congress Accuses BJP Of Hoarding Black Money

Pointing out the national BJP's "hypocrisy" in dealing with corruption, All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary and Telangana Congress MP V Hanumantha Rao boldly accused several BJP leaders, including Gali Janardhan Reddy, of hoarding caches of unaccountable money.

Speaking to the media at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday, Rao recalled that Reddy came under the Income Tax scanner after he received a Rs. 100 crore bill for his daughter's wedding on November 15.

"Is it not illegal if a BJP member hoards money?," he asked, and claimed that the Central leadership was least bothered about Reddy's black reserves. Rao also recalled that Janardhan Reddy had spent hundreds of crores of rupees even during his imprisonment for a 2015 mining scam.

Rao said that it would probably help Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Uttar Pradesh election campaign if the latter tried to clean up his own Party.

Slamming Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for welcoming the Centre's decision to demonetize 500 and 1,000 currency bills, Hanumantha Rao said that Naidu's demand that backward class organisations extend their support to Modi because of the move was inappropriate, and asked Naidu to stop "toadying" to the PM.

The Congress leader said that the problem lied with people hoarding black money, and not the two denominations. He suggested that the Centre order raids at the residences of all black money suspects under the IT scanner, including Janardhan Reddy, instead of demonetizing notes and causing discomfort to the poor and the middle-class.

When asked about the logic behind the demand, he said that most unaccountable wealth was in the form of gold, silver and other precious metals as those were easier to convert and store in personal stashes.

He added that he was surprised to find out that Ambani and Adani, two of the richest families in India, were left untouched; and asked the Centre to give a truthful disclosure of their assets. He exuded confidence that these families certainly had caches of black money stored in India and abroad.