Venkaiah Naidu Has Black Money, Alleges Congress

Alleging that several Union Cabinet Ministers were themselves holding unaccountable money, former Congress MP Ponnam Prabhakar questioned Union I & B Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on the source of funds of the latter's Swarna Bharati Trust, which had hundreds of crores of rupees in it.

Speaking to the media on Thursday at Gandhi Bhavan, Prabhakar alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to remain silent on Venkaiah Naidu's Trust wealth.

"Why did the Prime Minister not speak on demonetization in the Winter Session of Parliament?" he asked. It was unreasonable for the Prime Minister to suggest that the people switch over to cashless transactions, without estimating the number of digitally literate and well-to-do people in the nation.

He quipped that not many Union or State Ministers used smartphones for transactions.

Quite astonishingly, Prabhakar claimed that there was a chance for a civil war to break out if the effects of demonetization did not subside and if the situation didn't return back to normal.

Speaking on Telangana Finance Minister Etela Rajender's comments on switching over to cash-free transactions, Prabhakar mockingly asked whether the latter himself possessed the knowledge of doing online transactions.

He also alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was acting like he didn't care for people standing in queues outside banks and ATMs. He speculated that the TRS may merge with the BJP.