If the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comes to power at the Centre after the general elections, black money stashed abroad by some Indians will be brought back to India and would be utilized for the welfare of the poor, Bharatiaya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said on 22 April.

He was addressing an election rally of NDA at Lal Bahadur Sashtri Stadium in Hyderabad, flanked by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president Nara Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena founder and film star Pawan Kalyan. 

Such black money brought back to India will also be used to reward honest income tax payers, Modi added. If NDA returns to power, all efforts, including the change in legal acts, would be made to bring back the black money, he said. Dishonest will be punished and honest will get due respect, he said.   

Emphasizing that youths should shape their future between 18 and 28 years of their age, Modi said that during Vajpayee's six-year regime as prime minister, NDA government created one crore jobs, while Congress-led UPA government could only generate 1.25 crore jobs during its 10-year rule since 2004. Now the Congress, in its manifesto, is trying to hoodwink people by promising to create 10 crore jobs, the BJP's PM nominee said.

He also urged the electorate in Telangana to remember the sacrifices made by 1,200 young martyrs before casting their vote. He added that if the voters give him an opportunity to form the next NDA government at the Centre, he will achieve within seven months that has not been achieved in the last 60 years by the successive governments. 

On Thursday, 24 April, Modi will file his nomination for his second Lok Sabha seat from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. He has already filed nomination from Vadodara in his home state, Gujarat.

Keeping Modi's high profile in view after he was announced as BJP's prime ministerial candidate, the intelligence wing of the Gujarat police has sent its team to Varanasi to make safety arrangements for Modi's nomination procession on Thursday.

On 22 April, the Gujarat team in Varanasi checked the scheduled route of the nomination rally of Modi and gave instructions to local UP police to make required security arrangements, especially around Kashi Hindu University's helipad and the statue of Madan Mohan Malviya there.

According to reports, top leaders of BJP are going to give a miss to Modi's nomination rally as most of them are busily scheduled in their own election canvassing on that day. It can be recalled here that Modi accompanied BJP's top leader LK Advani in Gandhinagar, when the latter filed his nomination.   

(ED:VS)