Hyderabad, January 24: TDP boss Chandrababu Naidu today urged the Centre to prepare a draft bill to curb corruption and bring back black money stashed in tax havens abroad. He demanded that the bill be introduced in the budget session of Parliament.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today, the TDP president said the Centre ought to give first priority to tackling corruption, amending diplomatic laws if necessary. When the country is facing new challenges, old laws would have to be bypassed and new ones brought in to meet the new realities, he wrote.
Naidu suggested to the Prime Minister ‘seven sutras’ to curb corruption and curb black money. As chief executive of the country, it was Manmohan Singh’s duty to lead the fight against corruption. He would have to stop considering himself as a ‘loyalist” of some political figure or other. He should fight off all political pressures and come good on his image as ‘Mr Clean’, Naidu said. If the Centre acted strongly against corruption, it would sent a deterrent message to all functionaries indulging in corruption, Naidu wrote. “George W Bush’s daughter was jailed for drunken driving in the US. But those who commit crimes in our country tend to become influential persons,” Naidu lamented. He said Satyam Computers chairman Ramalinga Raju went to jail for his misdeeds, but such action has not been taken in the 2G spectrum scam. “Laws are becoming relative to some persons,” he remarked.
Naidu protested that the Income-Tax Department was not making public information pertaining to some persons who pay heavy taxes only to launder their black money. Such corrupt persons ought not to be shielded, he said. Information on such persons should be furnished to the public, detailing the source of that income. The letter referred to estimates that Rs 73 lakh crore of illegal money was stashed away in tax havens abroad. If the money were recovered, each poor family in India could be given a payout of `2 lakh.
Naidu said his party was prepared to work with the BJP on the floor of Parliament in tackling corruption.
–Agencies