War on black money cannot be concluded with one action:Naidu

The war on black money cannot be concluded with one action alone and many more steps will be taken by the Modi government in this regard, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said today, hailing the EC for countermanding the R K Nagar bypoll over use of money power. While terming the EC action as "the right decision" in the wake of charges of use of money power, he attacked the Congress for the generation of black money due to various scams worth thousands of crores that took place during their regime.

Naidu also attacked the opposition parties on the EVM tampering issue saying, "They should instrospect instead of raising such issues as it seems that they cannot accept defeat after people rejected them". "The Narendra Modi government has launched a war against black money. The war against black money cannot be concluded with one action alone. Demonetisation or remonetisation is one such step in the right direction. Many more things need to be done by our government to curb use of black money," he said.

Talking about the RK Nagar bypoll, the Minister said it is an appropriate decision taken by the Election Commission after conducting a detailed inquiry. He said the Election Commission "did the right thing" of countermanding the polls as "we have seen the brazen manner in which the money was being distributed and various reports have confirmed this".

"That is why I feel the Election Commission decision is right and in the interest of democracy," he said. The senior BJP leader brushed aside charges by parties attributing political motives for the decision. "It is the decision by the Election Commission and it is a correct decision. It is wrong to attribute political motives on the decision. It is an open fact that money was being distributed. It was caught on tape," he said.

He said the Income tax authorities have done their duty and it is natural for political parties to to react in such a manner. On the opposition raising the alleged tampering of EVMs, Naidu said, "There is no tampering of EVMs, the EC has confirmed this."

He also said, "The opposition parties are trying to find excuses for their defeat. The people of the country have rejected them and it is time they introspect. The EVMs were used earlier too and when BJP has lost in Punjab, Delhi and Bihar, they were happy. Now when they are losing, they are unable to digest it."

Taking on Congress leader P Chidambaram for his dig at the prime minister, Naidu said he would explain better as most black money was generated during his party's regime. "It is ridiculous to make such arguments. White money or black money will be known only after an inquiry. The use of money is certainly there. He (Chidambaram) must be able to explain better as he comes from that area.

"As I said most black money was generated during the Congress regime when so many scams took place. These include scams in 2G, 3G, CWG, Augusta, all of these happened during the Congress government," he said. P Chidambaram had taken a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking if his demonestisation drive has achieved the desired results.

"We were told demonetisation has put an end to black money. Was money distributed in R K NAGAR white money?," the former Finance and Home Minister said in a tweet.