Now political parties must declare assets :Swami Agnivesh

Shimla: All political parties should declare their assets,income and make public the source of their donations,said noted social activist Swami Agnivesh here Sunday.

“Civil society should not only monitor the income of contesting MPs and MLAs, it should make all political parties declare their income, assets and source of donations on their respective websites,” Agnivesh said.

“Once the income is made public the CAG should then audit this income,” he added.

Launching an attack on the rampant corruption in the country he said, “Now it is the spectrum scandal,but even bigger scandals like the Kaveri Godavari basin and Coal scandals will come to light soon, besides the black money in foreign banks could alone reveal a whopping Rs 400 lakh crore scandal.”

Commenting on the Lok Pal bill status he said, “This is only the first draft and we will study it when it is presented in parliament in the monsoon session.After which we will decide if some fine tuning is required or else the protest will continue from Aug 16 onwards.”

Asked about Anna Hazare’s and Baba Ramdev’s fight against corruption he said both were working at their levels.

“While Anna has been working against corruption for 25 years in Maharashtra, Baba Ramdev has been doing the same across the country for the last couple of years.”

He warned, “But if Anna and Ramdev are pursuing their political ambitions they will definitely loose their credibility.”

Photo by: Amit Kanwar

Baldev S Chauhan

In a 20 year career published widely. He has worked for the BBC, AFP, The Statesman, IANS and the Business Standard . Known for his hard hitting writing and occasional off-beat stories. He lives in Shimla.