PC doesn't know the names but knows the Congi did not keep the account for the party

Two names in the HSBC list are similar to those of two former UPA ministers. Both names are in the category of 210 account holders whose identities have not yet been established by the Income-Tax Department.

The Indian Express spoke to the two former ministers and both denied holding any such account.

Last Tuesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said revelations in the list could embarrass the Congress. In an interview to Times Now, when he was asked if he was not denying that there could be a minister from the UPA government in the list, Jaitley said: “I am neither confirming nor denying, I am only smiling.”

Meanwhile, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, responding to a question on the possibility of names of Congress politicians in the list, told NDTV: “If there is a name of a former minister, it will embarrass that person… the party won’t be. He (minister) is not keeping that account for the party; the party did not authorise him to keep that account. These are individual transgressions.”

Chidambaram said he had no knowledge of names in the list. “I did not ask to see nor was I shown the names. So whose name is there, I don’t know,” he said, adding that the government should just release the names instead of showing “promos”.