Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee which probed last year’s stock market scam Prakash Mani Tripathi said today that the personal indictment of the then finance secretary Ajit Kumar in the committee’s report happened by mistake.And reiterated there was nothing in the report which warrants then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha’s resignation since a Finance Minister could not be held responsible for everything that happens in the stock market.Tripathi’s statement comes on the day the Opposition’s chorus in Parliament was for action against Sinha. Sinha, incidentally, wasn’t named in the report although the JPC passed strictures against his Ministry’s inaction and slow response time.Tripathi said that he had directed JPC staff to remove Kumar’s name but there was ‘‘some slip-up in staff duties.’’ He, however, maintained that the officials of regulators like Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Finance Ministry ‘‘have to take their share of responsibility.’’When asked for his reaction to Congress party MP and JPC member Mani Shankar Aiyar’s statement that he (Tripathi) ‘‘had breached my trust by promising to remove Kumar’s name but then retaining it,’’ Tripathi said: ‘‘There is no breach of trust. Yes, I promised that I would get Kumar’s name removed and asked the staff to do that, but somewhere down the line there was a slip up.’’He claimed instead that the breach of trust was on the part of some Congress members of JPC who appeared on TV channels yesterday revealing the contents of the final report and seeking Sinha’s resignation before his own press conference.The JPC report has severely indicted Kumar for treating the financial crisis of Unit Trust of India (UTI) in a ‘‘routine and casual manner which is not expected from an officer of his rank.’’ Sources said Kumar was first indicted in the draft report of the committee after which some JPC members asked for inclusion of Sinha’s name as well. It was then agreed to remove Kumar’s name from the report but somehow the remarks made against him in the draft report got retained in the final report. When asked why the names of corporates which had extended hundreds of crores of rupees to stock broker Ketan Parekh before the scam was exposed were not named in the final report, Tripathi said, ‘‘To give any conclusive finding or recommendations based on Sebi’s report and without giving a chance to the corporates to present their viewpoint would have been improper.’’Tripathi said the JPC could not call each company for deposition due to paucity of time. ‘‘It is very easy to say that there is a nexus between corporates and brokers but very difficult to authoritatively establish it,’’ he added. On the question of some JPC members having close association with some ofthe corporates whose names figure in stock market irregularities, Tripathi confirmed there were differences of opinion among the members but said these did not affect the outcome of the report.‘‘In many ways, different opinions enrich such reports. It is also the hazard of the chairman to withstand pressures. Why talk of members, there were pressures from even outside as many of those who were involved wanted to meet me and I turned down every single request,’’ said Tripathi. He, however, admitted that the committee may not have ‘‘said harsh things in the report where it should have but it was by and large a very balanced report.’’He said if the government implements the recommendations of the committee, there would be no more scams in the stock market. He said it was the first JPC to have a dedicated chapter on implementation of its recommendations.
