Advani questions Sonia Gandhi's silence over black money, inflation

Mumbai, Nov 5 (ANI): Lashing out at Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani on Saturday questioned her 'silence' on issues such as black money, graft and inflation.

Addressing media here, Advani asked: "Why is the Congress President (Sonia Gandhi) totally silent on the issue of black money, on the issue of corruption, on the issue of inflation?"

"On all the three issues, all the while, other Congress party spokesmen are speaking or the Prime Minister who is speaking occasionally, but not the Congress President", Advani said.

He remarked that under the present dispensation, ever since Dr. Manmohan Singh has become the Prime Minister, the system in India approximates to the communist systems rather than democratic systems,

Asking whether the Centre is really interested in exposing those who have funds stashed abroad, Advani said he has been demanding that the government must come out with ahite paper on the steps it has taken to bring back this black money.

"It would be appropriate if a comprehensive white paper is presented to Parliament in the coming session on how government has till date dealt with the issue of black money in foreign banks," he added.

Earlier, Advani alleged that the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is " taking instructions from Sonia Gandhi', and not acting on his own rational notions.

Advani said: "The Prime Minister's word has to be the last word but the sad fact is that the buck doesn't stop at the Prime Minister like it does at the US President."

"There should be nobody after the Prime Minister. But the Prime Minister has been behaving in such a way that clearly shows the buck does not stop at Race Course Road. It stops only when 10 Janpath (Sonia Gandhi's official residence address) endorses what Race Course Road proposes to do," Advani added.

Blaming Dr. Singh for the rampant corruption in the country, Advani said: "Even the best economists would not be able to do anything about the price rise as long as there is rampant corruption."

Advani said that one allowed corruption to prevail, prices will rise?

"The best economist will not be able to manage inflation if corruption continues to be at this level," he added. (ANI)