Opposition united against Sinha

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 1. A united Opposition today frustrated the Union Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha's, attempt to put the UTI debacle in ``perspective'' for the second consecutive day in Parliament. In a display of perfect floor coordination, the entire Opposition refused to permit the Minister to shift accountability to the previous regimes.

In a virtual repeat of yesterday's proceedings, the day began with the two sides dismissing appeals from the other side to concede its position. The ruling party's request to excuse the Prime Minister from making a statement on his establishment's involvement in the UTI scam failed to placate the Opposition. Caustic exchanges between the two sides escalated into a slanging match leading to a 10-minute break which was translated into an extended lunch break to allow both sides to craft a mutually acceptable solution.

The result of the behind-the-scenes confabulation was a brief statement by the Prime Minister which paved the way for Mr. Sinha to resume yesterday's aborted reply. After the skirmishes in the morning, the first few minutes were anti- climactic. A restrained House heard Mr. Sinha deny that his intention was to transfer the accountability for US-64 troubles on previous regimes. The UTI's travails need not be interpreted as failure on the part of the Finance Minister of the day. The erosion in the US-64 scheme's net asset value was linked to the tumbling stock markets, a trend that had heightened early this year.

But the Opposition came alive as soon as Mr. Sinha began expounding on the enormous investments by the UTI in a single company during the Manmohan Singh years. His attempt to take the moral high-ground sharpened the exchanges and tempers escalated especially when Dr. Singh was not permitted to counter the Minister's assertions. Basically, the third and conclusive adjournment came after Mr. Sinha dwelt on investments in a ``certain Mumbai-based company''.

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Section  : National
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