India to ratify UN anti-graft convention: Pranab Mukherjee

Union minister Pranab Mukherjee today said India would endorse the UN convention on graft which the country signed in 2005.

"India will ratify the UN convention on graft. There is a long legal procedure which is needed to be followed," the finance minister said at a media interaction here.

The UN anti-graft convention has 140 countries in its list.

Taking a jibe at BJP for its tirade against corruption in the country, Mukherjee said it was the nature of that party to raise the issue from "time to time".

When BJP was in power during 1998-2004 it did not pass the Lokpal Bill conceived in 1972. "Nobody stopped them from doing that," he said.

He, however, welcomed the gesture made by veteran BJP leader LK Advani for assuring the party's support to the Lokpal Bill when tabled in the Parliament.

The bill would be placed during the coming Monsoon Session of Parliament, Mukherjee said.