NEW DELHI: he final report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the securities scam might not contain harsh criticism of the Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, JPC sources indicated.

Eleven Congress members have already moved a set of amendments seeking to delete some of the remarks in the final draft, criticizing Singh and the former RBI Governor of Venkitaraman.

With most members ruling out possibility of a consensus on the report, it now appears certain that all contentious paragraphs would have to be decided through vote, the sources said_ Going by the joint amendments moved by the Congress, the final report would seek to trace the history of irregularities to a much earlier period than 1991 and hence put the blame on previous governments as well, including the two non-Congress ones headed by Y.P.Singh and Chandra Sekhar.

The Congress amendments, moved jointly by 11 members of the committee, seek to delete about halfadozen paragraphs in as many chapters and replace some sentences and paragraphs.

Seeking Lo put the blame on earlier governments also, the Congress members have moved an amendment to para seven of chapter two, which gives an overview of the scam.

The crucial amendment reads, “Although the irregularities and fraudulent dealings in securities, banking transactions and PMS (Portfolio Management Scheme) Operations came to light in April 1992, they had their beginning at least in 1986 and continued snowballing through successive governments and a series of RBI governors. The ruling party members also seek to insert the term “over the years” in several paragraphs to drive home their contention that the scam had its origin much earlier.

One amendment seeks to delete a para that makes a sarcastic reference to the Finance Minister’s Statement that he would not lose sleep if there were steep Muctuations in the stock market. ‘The para in the final draft sought to be deleted reads, “The committee would like to observe that it is good to have a Finance Minister who does not lost his sleep easily, but one would wish that when Such cataclysmic changes take place all around some alarm would ring 0 disturb his slumber.”

Article extracted from this publication >>  December 10, 1993