Advani's Jan Chetna Yatra reaches Delhi

BJP leader L.K. Advani’s Jan Chetna yatra is slated to its climax in Delhi on Sunday where party leaders claim that they would stage a massive rally at the Ramlila Maidan.

The party’s “whistleblowers” in the cash-for-vote scam — Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora, along with Mr. Advani’s former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni and party worker Suhail Hindustani — will participate in the rally.

The party on Saturday felicitated the four to highlight the corruption issue and demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi clarify their stand on the matter.

Earlier, Mr. Advani reached Ghaziabad on Saturday on the last phase of his yatra.

Distinguishing his present journey from earlier ones he had undertaken, Mr. Advani said that in the earlier five, the guidance was given by his mentor Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but this time he had borne the load himself, adding he had however sought blessings from the former Prime Minister, a day prior to commencing the yatra.

The BJP leader said his decision to on the yatra was spontaneous, and came when two former BJP MPs were arrested in the cash-for-vote scam.

Asserting he had permitted them to go ahead with the plan to display the bribe money in Parliament, he said that he was shocked when they were arrested during the investigation.

He said the Delhi High Court’s decision to release all the arrested accused was a vindication of the purpose of his yatra.

Slamming the United Progressive Alliance government, he said it had signed a U.N. proposal to bring black black money from foreign countries but taken no action on it.

He said he had come to know that the French government has disclosed 700 names of those who had deposited black money in foreign banks but the government was not inclined to make them public.

Advani said the government of India has disclosed those names to the Supreme Court of India in a sealed envelope, but urged the names be made public.

“2010 and 2011 were years of corruptions and black money but 2012 will the year of accountability,” he said, saying the BJP would commit itself to removing corruption and bringing back black money to make a new India.