Opposition in both Houses of Parliament today demanded the resignation of Yashwant Sinha from the Cabinet and questioned the propriety of Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) Chairman Shriprakash Mani Tripathi giving him a clean chit in the stock market scam. According to them, it was a ‘‘breach of trust and privilege’’.Tripathi, in turn, charged the Opposition with politicisation of the JPC report and denied having committed any breach of trust. He maintained: ‘‘The report was unanimous and I have not given any clean chit to anybody.If there has been any breach of trust, it is by you (the Opposition).’’ Waving a copy of the release circulated at his press meet, Tripathi said: ‘‘This shows no kind of clean chit was given.You can go through it.’’ Even before the conference, he charged, the report was politicised and the only thing he was questioned on was ‘‘Yashwant Sinha, Yashwant Sinha and Yashwant Sinha’’. The issue was raised by Congress members Mani Shankar Aiyer in the Lok Sabha and Kapil Sibal in the Rajya Sabha. Sibal said the report had held the Finance Ministry accountable for the scam and Sinha, who held the finance portfolio then, alone was responsible to Parliament.Aiyer, objecting to Tripathi’s remarks at yesterday’s press conference, said it was ‘‘shocking and deplorable’’ to see the JPC Chairman give a clean chit to Sinha when the report had held the Finance Ministry responsible. He said: ‘‘There can be no ministry without a minister.since the JPC has indicted the ministry, we demand Sinha’s resignation.’’ His party colleague Jaipal Reddy said the report had listed a number of lapses on part of the Finance Ministry. Both Congress members were challenged by BJP and Samata members. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Vinay Katiyar, Kirti Azad and Kirit Somaiyya of the BJP objected to the decision of the Speaker to permit Aiyer to raise the issue. Manohar Joshi ruled amid pandemonium that he would also permit Malhotra and Tripathi to speak.Later, BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu told journalists that the Opposition demand for the resignation of Sinha ‘‘was absurd, irrational and politically motivated’’.
