Nine Opposition members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, which went into the stock market scam and UTI fiasco, on Friday accused JPC Chairman Prakash Mani Tripathi of giving a ‘clean chit' to the former finance minister Yashwant Sinha.

"We are shocked to find that without any authorisation from the JPC, the chairman has claimed that the JPC has given a 'clean chit' to the former finance minister. The JPC has done nothing of the kind," they said in a joint statement.

Stating that the JPC report was replete with 'indictments of various sins of omission and commission on the part of the finance ministry', they said: "There can be no ministry without the minister. Moreover, it is the minister not the officials of the ministry nor the regulatory agencies who are responsible and accountable to Parliament."

"We underline that the JPC has deplored the culture of governance which shifts the blame elsewhere. Sinha must accept the blame for the protracted, repeated and diverse lapses of those who reported to him. He must quit," they said.

Signatories to the statement are: Mani Shankar Aiyar, K Rahman Khan, Margaret Alva, S Jaipal Reddy, Kapil Sibal and Pravin Rashtrapal (all Congress), Rupchand Pal (CPI-M), Prem Gupta (RJD) and Kunwar Akhilesh Singh (SP).

JPC report rocks Parliament

The Joint Parliamentary Committee report on last year's stock scam rocked Parliament on Friday with the Congress demanding the resignation of the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and accusing the Committee Chairman Prakash Mani Tripathi of giving him a 'clean chit', a charge the BJP MP rejected.

Amidst heated exchanges between Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party members in the Lok Sabha, Tripathi, who headed a 30-member committee, hit back at the Congress members saying they were politicising the report.

"No kind of any clean chit was given to Sinha," he asserted.

A day after the report was tabled, Congress members Mani Shankar Aiyar and Kapil Sibal raised the issue alleging that Tripathi had given a 'clean chit' to Sinha in the scam.

In the Rajya Sabha, Sibal contended that the report had held the finance ministry accountable and the minister, who headed it, was alone responsible to Parliament.

Aiyar, in the Lok Sabha, took strong exception to Tripathi's remarks. He said it was 'shocking and deplorable' that while the report had held the ministry responsible for acts of omission and commission, the responsibility had been totally shifted away from the then finance minister.

Another Congress member Jaipal Reddy expressed dismay and regret over the manner in which Tripathi held a press conference to give a clean chit to Sinha.

The report, he said, had listed a number of lapses on the part of finance ministry and said it was ridiculous to say there could be a ministry without a minister. How can the minister escape responsibility, he asked.

Waving a copy of the press release circulated at his press conference, Tripathi said: "..and this shows no kind of any clean chit was given.... You can go through it."

Referring to the Congress demand for Sinha's resignation he said: "Even before the press conference the report was politicised and I was not asked any question except on Yashwant Sinha."

He said when newsmen persisted on Sinha's involvement he had told them go through the report and draw their own conclusions.

BJP hits out at Opposition

The BJP on Friday hit out at the Opposition for asking for the resignation of former finance minister Yashwant Sinha in the wake of JPC report on stock scam and UTI fiasco, saying the demand was 'absurd' and 'politically motivated'.

"It is absurd to ask for resignation of the then finance minister. The demand is politically motivated. There is no explanation for their miserable defeat in Gujarat assembly elections and, therefore, they are asking for Sinha's resignation," party President M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters.

He said the Opposition instead of demanding the resignation of Sinha, now external affairs minister, 'should do soul searching.'

He said there was no indictment of the then finance minister in the report at all.

Party spokesman V K Malhotra said the issue was raised in Parliament by the Opposition, especially Congress, to derive political mileage.

"There was no dissenting note given in the report," Malhotra said.