Congress today launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and slammed his government for its "sheer hypocrisy" in having told Supreme Court that not all information on black money received from foreign nations can be made public.
"Can't disclose names, Centre tells SC. Will Anna, Baba, Kiran agitate," AICC General Secretary Ajay Maken said in a tweet after the Centre told Supreme Court today that it cannot disclose such details as has been shared with it by countries that have a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) with India.
Citing four tweets posted by Modi before Lok Sabha polls on the black money issue in which the BJP leader had slammed the previous Manmohan Singh government, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi wondered if there was only "sheer hypocrisy" in public life.
In the run-up to parliamentary polls, BJP had promised to bring back black money kept by Indians in overseas bank while targeting the UPA government for not taking effective action on the issue. After assuming power in May, the Modi government had pledged to fulfil its pre-poll promise.
"This is not only a hiatus between the words and deeds of BJP, but sheer hypocrisy and dishonesty with the public of India. Modi government's functioning is defined in the hiatus between speech and reality and action and words.
"One wonders whether his black money rhetoric was meant for pre-election audience," Singhvi said at an AICC briefing.
Singhvi read out tweets by Modi in which the latter had attacked UPA's "lack of commitment" towards bringing back black money.
Singhvi also recalled that BJP had attacked the then UPA finance minister Pranab Mukherjee after he had talked about the difficulty of naming the Swiss bank account-holders due to DTAA obligations.
He said the government should have the courage now to say that governance is different from rhetoric and added that "the then finance minister was doing nothing more than what was done today after months and months of hypocrisy".
Alleging that Modi and BJP made "hyperbole" on black money with a view to garnering votes, he asked whether the Prime Minister should not tender an apology to the nation for the same.
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