M A I N   N E W S

Cong unhappy over Natwar’s remarks
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 28
The Congress has taken a serious view of former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh’s recent statements implicating the party in the Volcker controversy. However, it is unlikely to proceed against him in a hurry.

“This matter will definitely be discussed at the highest levels in the party,” Congress spokesperson Rajeev Shukla told presspersons today. He also denied any Congress involvement in Iraq’s oil-for-food programme, stating that AICC treasurer Motilal Vora had furnished all necessary details to the investigating agencies showing that the party was in the clear.

In an interview to CNN-IBN yesterday, Mr Natwar Singh maintained that he was being made a scapegoat in the Volcker controversy and that while he was being questioned by investigating agencies, there was no mention of the Congress party, which had also been named a beneficiary in the Volcker report. In addition, Mr Natwar Singh had also slammed the Indo-US nuclear deal and the UPA government’s Nepal policy.

Admitting that the former minister’s statements were embarrassing, Congress insiders maintained that the party was unlikely to act against him in a hurry. It would depend on whether Mr Natwar Singh persisted with his attack against the party and the government in the coming days.

At one level, the former minister’s efforts at implicating the Congress were not unexpected as there had been a lurking fear that Mr Natwar Singh could take this position if the investigating agencies closed in on him. There had been reports that the Enforcement Directorate had unearthed fresh evidence against the former minister, which included three letters written by him to Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

When this information surfaced earlier this month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked a senior minister to meet Mr Natwar Singh to ascertain his side of the story. The former minister, it is learnt, wanted to see the letters and maintained these could be forgery or the work of his detractors.

There is growing concern that Mr Natwar Singh’s public pronouncements had resurrected the Volcker controversy and the Opposition was bound to put the government on the mat on this issue. In fact, former BJP president L.K. Advani had already seized on this issue and demanded that the investigating agencies should also question Congress President Sonia Gandhi in connection with the Iraqi oil-for-food programme.

Speaking in Indore today, Mr Advani referred to Mr Natwar Singh’s statements, which, he said, had vindicated what the BJP had been saying all along.