Will spend black money on inter-linking rivers: Gadkari

“When the NDA forms the union government in 2014, we will bring back all the black money to India and utilise the funds for the welfare of the farmers and to link Ganga and Cauvery rivers,” BJP National President Nitin Gadkari said, at the convention.

He said it was a matter of time before the NDA returned to power at the Centre.

“Everywhere I go, I can see people waiting for the change to happen. A BJP leader will lead the nation by becoming prime minister in 2014,” he said, but stopped short of mentioning the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. Coming down heavily on the UPA government, Gadkari ridiculed the stand taken by the Centre on black money.

“The UPA government has the audacity of telling the Supreme Court that disclosing names of people having such accounts is not in the interest of the nation,” Gadkari said. He charged the UPA government with ‘swindling away’ Rs three lakh crore out of the total Rs 10 lakh crore Central Budget outlay this fiscal.

On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent comment that he was not as big a culprit as was being made out, Gadkari sought to know, “I ask the Prime Minister: How much percentage of culprit are you?”

Gadkari said the country’s borders were not safe. China is building airports and developing roads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, he said.

“Naxalites are trying to create a ‘red zone’ from Pashupati in Nepal to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, while the UPA government has remained a mute witness to the dangerous development,” he said.