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BJP-Congress war of words on Hassan Ali

Special Correspondent

Government hiding behind “veneer of respectability”

“No question of government submitting forged documents”
Hassan Ali had not paid his income tax from 2001 to 2006

NEW DELHI: Is the Swiss charge of government submitting “forged documents” to it in the Hassan Ali case believable? Or is it the Swiss banks, whichhave made a lucrative business out of black money in secret accounts, are simply unwilling to part with any information?

The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party expressed diametrically opposing views on this subject here on Tuesday.

Taking at face value the claim of a spokesman of the Swiss Ministry of Justice made to a television channel recently, BJP leader Arun Shourie accused the Manmohan Singh government of hiding behind a “veneer of respectability” while deliberately suppressing the “fact” of forged documents being supplied to Swiss banks in the case of Hassan Ali who is believed to have stashed away “eight billion U.S. dollars” in secret Swiss banks. Moreover, Mr. Shourie alleged that the government had hidden these facts from the Supreme Court when filing its affidavit in response to a public interest litigation petition related to the case.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi categorically denied the allegation, saying “there was no question of the government submitting forged documents. This was a completely baseless charge.” In fact, the United Progressive Alliance government has been “hot on the heels of this Hassan Ali.”

He found fault with the secrecy laws of Swiss banks, protected by stringent laws and regulations, and designed to conceal the truth. “For the last 20 years, not much information has come out from the Swiss banks, which routinely bring up some technical issue or another, in order not to disclose any information about their clients,” Mr. Singhvi said.

Mr. Shourie admitted that the previous National Democratic Alliance had not woken up to the fact that Hassan Ali had not paid his income tax since 2001 through to 2006. It was only in 2006 that this came to the notice of the government which started investigating the man. “Just because we did not catch him does not mean that the UPA is not at fault. The next government cannot plead that since the UPA was not able to nail him down, it too is not at fault for not being able to get him,” Mr. Shourie said.

The case is in the Supreme Court. Mr. Shourie agreed that it was now up to the Supreme Court to try and get to the bottom of the story and ask the government for answers, but nevertheless it was an important issue, especially since many experts believe that terrorists have used the ‘hawala’ route to finance their deadly ventures.

He also pointed out that the Administrative Reforms Commission chaired by Veerappa Moily talked about the need to plug terrorist financing.

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