The rot went all the way to the top of Bharati politikos. They may wear a dhoti and kurtta, but their corruption is as bad as our policitians. Even worse, they looted Iraq oil-for-food program thus helping kill Iraqi kids. Darn it!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1317424.cms
The Times of India Online
Printed from timesofindia.indiatimes.com > India
P Shiv Shankar adds ‘oil spill’ to Matherani’s remarks
K Sreedhar Rao
Saturday, December 03, 2005 11:26:00 pmTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
HYDERABAD: In what has come as a further blow to Natwar Singh, former petroleum minister P Shiv Shankar, who was part of the four-member Congress delegation to Iraq, on Saturday broadly confirmed the sequence of events as revealed by Aniel Matherani.
Shiv Shankar, who has now quit Congress told TOI in an exclusive interview that Natwar’s son Jagat Singh and his friend Andaleeb Sehgal - though not part of the official Congress delegation - suddenly surfaced in Iraq and ‘‘joined us at the hotel that we were staying in’’.
‘‘I don’t know how they surfaced and what business they had. I also have no clue what they were up to,’’ Shiv Shankar said. He added: ‘‘Jagat Singh, however, claimed that he was Youth Congress’ general secretary.’’
The former minister, once reckoned close to Indira Gandhi, also described Aniel Matherani as a small fry working in the Congress office for Natwar Singh. ‘‘Frankly, it is a revelation to me that a man like him has become an Indian ambassador,’’ said Shiv Shankar.
Asked about the purpose of the Iraq visit, Shiv Shankar said it was a goodwill delegation. ‘‘We met the Iraqi foreign and petroleum ministers and discussed extensively about issues related to oil,’’ he said and added: ‘‘We discussed about oil production in the country, cost of production, daily production and even about seismic studies conducted by the Iraqi government in oil fields.’’ Other than Shiv Shankar and Natwar Singh, the other two members of the delegation were A R Antulay and A R Kidwai.
“We stayed there for three days and returned home, but both Jagat and Andleeb did not accompany the delegation on the return journey,” he said.
“Both these boys went to Jordan, where the in-laws of Jagat stay and they were held up there,” Shiv Shankar said.
NATWAR’S LONELY BATTLE: The Congress is waiting, but Natwar Singh is not willing to oblige. The central figure in the Iraqi oil scam frustrated his party by refusing to relinquish his "minister without portfolio"perch, disregarding snowballing sentiment within the party that he has become a political millstone.
Natwar Singh briefly set political circles aflutter on Saturday, when he drove to PM Manmohan Singh’s official residence. The presence of national security advisor M K Narayanan heightened the buzz. But hopes in the party of an early end to its Oilgate ordeal proved shortlived.
Congress will have to put up with a sustained Opposition onslaught in the wake of former ambassador to Croatia Aniel Matherani’s endorsement of the Volcker panel’s indictment of Natwar in an interview to India Today. The former foreign minister is clearly digging his heels in over the resignation issue.
"He defended himself strongly at the meeting with the PM, which was held at his instance,"PMO sources said. Though Natwar does not have a portfolio, he has managed to present the PM and Congress with a burgeoning political crisis. By afternoon, the word in the Capital’s power corridors was clear enough: Natwar wasn’t going.
Natwar provided some proof of this intent on the sidelines of a function to release a book on Mangal Pandey, hero of the first war of Independence. "There is a struggle, we will face it,"he said. He refused further comment on whether he would serve a notice on Matherani.
SIBAL DEFENDS COLLEAGUE : Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Saturday said in Pune that the BJP was creating a needless debate of the remarks attributed by the media to India’s envoy to Croatia, Aniel Matherani, over the Volcker controversy, .
Pointing out that Matherani had denied the remarks, Sibal told reporters that the government had to find out the extent of truth in the entire episode.
“We have to see whether there is any evidence or document supporting what Matherani said,” Sibal, who holds the science and technology portfolio in the Union Cabinet, noted.
A long-time party functionary, Matherani was reported by a news weekly of attesting the UN probe’s findings that former foreign minister Natwar Singh had taken oil coupons and benefitted from Saddam Hussein’s illegal oil sales.
Faced with Natwar’s threat of legal action, Matherani subsequently disowned the remarks, but the purported interview provided enough fodder to the BJP-led opposition to raise a fresh storm over the Volcker controversy in Parliament on Friday.
Unlike BJP, Sibal remarked, the Congress did not believe in playing politics over such issues. “We are investigating the issue (UN findings vis-a-vis Indian beneficiaries of the food-for-oil scam),” he said.
Sibal insisted that there was a marked difference in Congress’ approach to such issues than what the BJP demonstrated during its regime when it took little action for three to four years on the Tehelka tapes despite the scam having unfolded in front of the public eyes.
“They (BJP) tried to set up evidence from outside to show that the tapes were doctored, while we are getting evidence to establish the truth,” he said. The UPA had not only set up a probe commission but had also put the enforcement directorate on the job to examine the charges, he said.
Sibal said that the Rs 125 crore project to establish an early warning system for tsunamis, would be in place by September 2007. “The Cabinet has approved the project while a budget for the same has also been sanctioned,” he said. Sibal said the ministry’s focus remains on taking the technology developed at research labs to the markets by way of public-private partnership.
“Our projects under the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative are on the gallop with 65 private companies and 230 institutions engaged on varied tasks,” he said.
CONG DILEMMA : While the recent developments in the oil-for-food programme are bound to prolong the party’s agony and have moved a section within the party to advocate tough steps after PM Manmohan Singh’s return from Moscow on Wednesday, the leadership is still not sure of how profitable any “swift” solution would be at this juncture. The fear is that a “hurt and vengeful” Natwar Singh, an accused in the oil slick, might turn on the party leadership.
This apprehension does not appear unfounded as while rebutting Matherani’s charges, Natwar carefully bracketed himself with Congress. The not-so-diplomatic message from the former foreign minister has not been lost upon Congress strategists who are having to factor in the certainty of the Opposition, turning its focus on Sonia Gandhi if Natwar delivers the ammunition.
BJP chief L K Advani and his colleagues have already given enough warning of their intent. On Saturday, in Jaipur, Advani stuck to his guns that Sonia should step down till she is cleared by Justice R S Pathak probe. But against this, Congress also has to weigh the cost of a confrontation with an Opposition determined to seize the political initiative from government.
Expectations that Natwar would heed suggestions from his “comrades” in the Left have also not materialised with Natwar rudely brushing aside the demand of CPI, his defender till the other day, to step down in the wake of Matherani’s interview to the weekly.
The exasperation in the Congress is now rising to the surface in the form of suggestions that the PM should step forward to bell the cat. Since the controversy broke out, Sonia has studiously kept a distance from her erstwhile loyalist. Her strategists have been at pains to stress her “annoyance” with Natwar for subjecting the party to a first-rate political embarrassment. This is noteworthy, considering the usual premium on reticence that the Congress president seems to prefer.
The Prime Minister, however, has his own constraints. To start with, he gave an “innocent till proved guilty by Pathak” chit to Natwar and holds that Matherani’s interview has not changed the situation.
There is the related problem of balancing any marching orders to Natwar on the basis of “unverified” contents in the Volcker panel with the continuance of “chargesheeted” partners like RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.
Then, he also has to reckon with the possibility that any nudge from him to Natwar may be ignored by the former minister who, while as external affairs minister, wasted few chances to tout his autonomy.
The Prime Minister’s office has sought to toss the matter in the party leadership’s court, saying the Congress can very well ask Natwar to leave if it holds that he has become a political liability.
As he leaves for Moscow on Sunday morning, it was clear that Singh’s mindspace will remain occupied by his obstinate minister, leaving his colleagues, while facing off with the Opposition, try to find ways to come out of the bind.