BOMBAY: Reiterating his party’s demand for a probe by Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), former Prime Minister V.P.Singh recently said that both the National Front and the Left Front would move a no-confidence motion against the P.V.Narasimha Rao government over the country’s biggest ever bank scam

Singh said as the Central Bureau of Investigation and the special court appointed by the Center have limitations, there was no alternative but to appoint a JPC for a fair probe into the scandal.

Elaborating his point, Singh said, compared to the CBI and the court, the JPC has enough authority to investigate as it would be constructed by the Parliament, the country’s highest democratic institution,

I do not doubt the capability, talent and integrity of the officials of the CBI, but I also know their limitations, as they are also officials working under an authority controlled by the government,” Singh remarked.

When his attention was drawn towards a newspaper report indicating the involvement of a bank controlled by Janata Dal MP George Fernandes, Singh said the JPC has no boundaries; it would be able to investigate all aspects of the scam.

Singh dissociated himself from the statement made by Fernandes about the involvement of three central ministers in the scandal and demand for resignation of Finance Minister Manmohan Singh owing moral responsibility of the scam.

“It is for Fernandes to disclose the names of the ministers,” he said, adding, “so far as the demand for resignation of Manmohan Singh is concerned, I think the finance minister should fix the responsibility of the scam.”

If the scam cannot shake up us, then nothing can wake up us, this is staggering,” Singh said replying a question.

Singh said there was much more behind the Janakiraman Committee Report. It has detected a fraud of Rs 3078 crore, which is directly visible, but unfortunately, so far, nobody has taken into consideration the black money involved in the press.

Stating that the broader issue involved in the scandal was corruption at all levels, Singh said middle class and rural population was the most affected by the scam, as the love in share and tendency to earn quick money had touched that class too,

Quoting newspaper report, Singh said just a few days before the presentation of the union budget, the Finance Ministry had invited Harshad Mehta to address the top brass of the ministry to educate them on foreign investment,

As the report had not been denied so far, it raises the question of his political and commercial connections in the national capital. “How he (Mehta) has such big clout,” he added.

When I was a finance minister, I also invited eminent economists and industrialist to address the officials, but, all of them were above board,” he said.

Referring to the two decisions of the government one about shifting the inquiry from Chief Income Tax Commissioner Nayak to other officials and dropping the proposal of liquidation of Karad Bank on March 4, Singh said it was not the job of petty government or bank officials, as many “big bulls” were involved in it.

Singh called for compilation and reconciliation of bank accords and that legal steps should be taken to curb speculative activities in the share business.

Demanding that the department of banking should be scrapped immediately, Singh said it has miserably failed in its task to curb the frauds in nationalized and other banks.

I think instead of having nominees of the Center on the nationalized banks, the RBI should be given more powers,” he suggested.

About the Bofors scandal Singh said when the National Front took over, there was only an allegation, “But subsequently, we revealed more concrete information in the scandal. We have set up the process of investigation and hope that the country would know the truth in the days to come,” he added.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1992