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Cong. demands Sinha's resignation

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI DEC. 19. Within hours of the Joint Parliamentary Committee tabling its report on the stock market scam, the Congress today demanded the resignation of the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha; stating that the findings were a "damning indictment'' of his role as the then Finance Minister.

Citing precedence, the Congress spokesman, S. Jaipal Reddy, said the former Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh, offered to resign in the wake of the JPC report on the 1992 stock market scam. "We want them to apply the same principle they had expected of the Congress Government then.'' He particularly underlined the fact that seven members of the current Cabinet were members of the JPC which probed the 1992 scam. "Mr. Sinha himself was a member of that JPC.''

The Congress, however, was not hopeful of heads rolling as a result of the JPC's findings. "There have been several instances when the Opposition has demanded that NDA Ministers take moral responsibility and resign, but in vain. We have no reason to believe that Mr. Sinha will be any different. But, we will mount pressure on the Government,'' said Kapil Sibal, member of the JPC. Another Congress member of the committee, Mani Shankar Aiyar, quoted extensively from the report to fix responsibility on Mr. Sinha. The party maintained that Mr. Sinha's indictment was more severe as there was unanimity within the committee.

However, the JPC chairman, Prakash Mani Tripathi — who belongs to the BJP — gave the Minister a clean chit and dismissed the views expressed by Mr. Sibal and Mr. Aiyar as "political statements'' and added that "there is a difference between the report and the political statement.''

An unfazed Mr. Sinha, speaking to reporters soon after the Congress demanded his resignation, asked: "What else do you expect from the Opposition?''

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