On the second day of his Jan Chetna Yatra,L K Advani on Wednesday thanked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for creating a massive response and went on to add that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was not upset with him. To a question on the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP,he remained non-committal. Though I firmly believe that the NDA will come to power after next general elections,the party alone will decide on the PM nominee at the right time, he said. He also parried questions about Kumar being a probable prime ministerial nominee. The objective of the yatra,he said,was to discuss corruption and inflation with the people. Addressing the media before resuming the second days stretch of 275 km from Patna to Varanasi,the BJP patriarch said,There is a possibility of early polls under the present situation because of corruption and black money. Earlier,he and Kumar paid tribute to Socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia on his death anniversary. Recalling Lohia and Jayprakash Narayan,Advani said both leaders had been in favour of the Jan Sanghs stated stand of confederation of India and Pakistan which the BJP calls Akhand Bharata . The senior BJP leader said the UPA government should present a white paper on black money deposited in banks outside India and make account holders names public. Referring to Global Financial Integrity Report (an international think tank in the US) from 1948 to 2008,he said: The report says India lost $213 billion through illicit capital flight. The present value of Indias total illicit financial flows is estimated at $462 billion (Rs 25 lakh crore). Replying to queries on Modis reported displeasure,he said,I wonder why the media takes it as a professional duty to ask questions on Modi. There is no question of his being upset. He has blogged how happy he has been with Nitish flagging the yatra. Asked if it was not incongruous for the BJP to start an anti-graft campaign when B S Yeddyurappa resigned as Karnataka CM on corruption charges,Advani said: Rather,it is all the more important to stress on probity in politics. Talking on the objective of much-discussed Ram Rath Yatra in 1990,he said: The High Court has endorsed our stand and we hope that the Supreme Court also does so.
