Sinha did not figure in JPC report: Govt

The government yesterday gave a clean chit to former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in the multi-crore stocks scam of 2001. It said the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) looking into the scam had not made any reference to him. This prompted the Congress, RJD and Left parties to walk out of the Lok Sabha.

"The JPC has not found my esteemed colleague Yashwant Sinha guilty," Finance Minister Jaswant Singh told the House. He was replying to a debate on the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the recommendations of the JPC, headed by Sriprakash Mani Tripathi of the BJP.

Stating that the government was fully committed to implementing the recommendations of the JPC in the interests of the market and investors, Singh said the issue of guilt or innocence was a process of investigation and for the courts to decide.

"No guilty person will be spared," he said. Unsatisfied by Singh's response, Mani Shankar Aiyer of the Congress, who initiated the debate on the ATR yesterday, charged the government and Sinha in particular of shirking responsibility and led the walkout.

Amid constant interruptions during Singh's reply, JPC Chairman Tripathi said a proper reply had been given on the issues raised by the members.

"You cannot hold the House to ransom," Tripathi told Aiyer and his party colleague PR Dasmunsi, who were repeatedly asking the finance minister to own responsibility and wanted to know whether Sinha was guilty or not.

The finance minister said a subjective interpretation of the recommendations regarding the fixing of responsibility for the scam was not possible.

Singh pointed out that 150 of the 276 recommendations of the JPC had already been implemented. He said it was not possible for the government to look into the day-to-day functioning of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Singh said there was a difference between the market scam of 1992 and the one in 2001. He said in 1992 the office of the Controller of Capital Issues was lodged in the finance ministry, but by 2001 Sebi was nine years old with all the powers under the securities laws.

He, however, said had the recommendations of 1992 been effectively implemented it would have been possible to avoid the market misconduct or minimise it.

At the same time, Singh advocated the freedom and authority of the autonomous regulator saying it would be misleading to assume that regulator had a limited role.