Congress should "introspect" its contribution to corruption & black money: Venkaiah Naidu

NEW DELHI: Hitting back at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of demonetisation, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said he opposition party should "introspect" its contribution towards ills like corruption and black money.

Attacking the Congress, the Union Information and Broadcasting minister said the party which has ruled India for the maximum time should give answers as it has all along "patronised" black money and corruption.

He said that as the Congress celebrates its Foundation Day and it is only appropriate that the issue of black money, corruption etc, are "haunting" it.


Referring to Rahul's comments earlier in the day, Naidu said that the Congress Vice president had expressed unwisely his "vicarious pleasure" over what he thought that note withdrawal is a big failure in terms of unearthing black money.

"This clearly shows that his party is with those who all along lived by black money and corruption....One of the objectives of note withdrawal has been to see that high value currency notes reach the system.

"Whatever does not reach banking system obviously could be taken as unaccounted for money. It does not necessarily mean that all the currency that reached the banking system is white money," Naidu said.

One would have known by now that December 30 is not the last day of efforts for unearthing black money, he added.

Claiming that spit and run won't work, Naidu posed five questions to Rahul and Congress. He asked them to explain whether they believe that there is no black money and corruption in the country and there was no need for any measures to tackle them?

If Congress believes that there is a problem of black money and corruption, why did it's governments not take effective measures against them, he asked.

Naidu also asked why Congress government brought the Benami Property law before Parliament in 1988 but did not subsequently notified it?

Why some major opposition parties are refusing to join hands with Congress in its anti-note withdrawal campaign? he asked Naidu asked.

Why Congress Government didn't act on Supreme Court's directive for setting up SIT on black money, was Naidu's fifth question.