Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday said Ministers should hand over their businesses to trusts to maintain transparency. “As is being done in the U.S. where Presidents normally transfer their business to a trust before taking charge, in India too, Ministers should follow this precedent to separate their ministerial and commercial responsibilities,” Mr. Khurshid told journalists here.
Referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s request to his Cabinet colleagues to stay away from their businesses on a daily basis while in office, Mr. Khurshid said: “It is a welcome move and I hope such step will draw support from across the board.”
‘Political compulsion’
Talking about the ongoing ‘Mumbai for Maharashtrians’ controversy, Mr. Khurshid said the Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena were forced to do this out of political compulsions. “The right response for all such matters should not always be legal, but also political,” he added. Mr. Khurshid denied that the current controversy would have any impact on Mumbai, which is the financial capital of the country.
