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Vajpayee rules out Sinha's resignation

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Tuesday rejected opposition demand for the resignation of Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha over the UTI fiasco.

Responding to queries from BJP MPs at the parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi on the UTI fiasco, specially the fate of small investors, he said all steps were being taken to revive UTI and "the question of his (Sinha's) resignation does not arise" as he has not done anything for which he should resign, party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters.

Vajpayee said all steps were being taken to restore the confidence of small investors.

The government had come under attack in the wake of the UTI fiasco and party MPs sought to know what steps was being taken in this regard. opposition MPs gunned for Sinha saying he should resign owning moral responsibility for the UTI muddle. The demand was made both during Question Hour as well as during the inconclusive short-duration discussion on the issue.

Sinha, in his response, denied having influenced the decision to freeze the scheme for six months.

"I deny it with all the emphasis at my command (that the finance ministry was in the know of the US 64 problems earlier)", Sinha said in his reply.

Participating in the inconclusive short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha, leader of the opposition, Manmohan Singh, labelled the UTI fiasco as a "great betrayal" of over 20 million investors particularly pensioners, widows and the middle-class.

Though heads had started to roll," the finance ministry had a lot to answer for its inability to read the signs of crises.

Participating in the discussion, Singh said Sinha's yet another disclaimer that his ministry was not aware of the looming crises did not hold water.

Singh regretted that though Finance Secretary Ajit Kumar had come to know about the freeze of UTI flagship scheme US-64, he was not informed for 36 hours adding that this was a grave lapse.

Supporting his Congress colleague, Kapil Sibal, charged that the government with "political expediency" for purchase of low-value shares at high prices by UTI in a bid to prop up the capital market to create the elusive feelgood factor in the economy.

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