Oil for food gravy train was looted by Bharatis and now the chickens have come home to roost. Well Good-bye Nut-war and let’s see if Sonia is out too.
See this is what happens when Uncle Sam makes a phone call to my-Man Mohan Singh.
Good riddance you looters of Iraq. Non Aligned, My foot!
India cabinet minister ‘to quit’
Former Indian foreign minister Natwar Singh has decided to resign from the federal cabinet, a ruling Congress party spokesman says.
Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said Mr Singh will quit “soon after” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returns from a foreign trip on Wednesday.
Mr Singh has come under pressure over claims that he benefited from the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq.
The Congress party removed him from its highest decision-making body on Sunday.
Mr Singh, who maintains he is innocent, had initially refused to leave the cabinet, where he is a minister without a portfolio.
In a statement on Sunday, he said to do so would be to suggest he was guilty.
Congress party spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters that Mr Singh met with party chief Sonia Gandhi and spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday to discuss his resignation.
“He informed the prime minister of his decision to resign. He will be handing over the resignation soon after the prime minister’s return to New Delhi [on Wednesday],” Mr Sharma is quoted telling journalists.
There has been no comment from Mr Singh.
‘Witch-hunt’
There was uproar in India’s parliament again on Tuesday after opposition MPs demanded the resignation of Mr Singh.
On Monday, Mr Singh’s son Jagat - who is also alleged to have benefited from the scandal - said his father and he were ready to be investigated by anybody, including the Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s top police body.
We will not be scapegoats
Natwar Singh’s son Jagat
He said people should wait for a judicial investigation into the matter to be completed before pointing fingers at them.
Separately, a fellow Congress member and India’s ambassador to Croatia, Aneil Matherani, was questioned by officers of the enforcement directorate which investigates financial crimes.
Last week, Mr Matherani suggested in a magazine interview that Natwar Singh had facilitated the procurement of oil vouchers during a visit to Iraq in 2001.
Mr Matherani subsequently claimed that his comments to the magazine, India Today, were made off the record. He has since been recalled to Delhi.
Natwar Singh called the allegation “false and malicious” and said he would consult his lawyers.
‘Illegal payments’
The allegations first surfaced in a UN report published in October, in which Natwar Singh and the Congress party were named as non-contractual-beneficiaries of the oil-for-food programme.
The report, written by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, said more than 2,000 firms made illegal payments to Saddam Hussein’s government.
Under the UN programme, Saddam Hussein’s government could sell oil as long as the proceeds were used to buy humanitarian goods.
Both Natwar Singh and Congress have denied the allegations.
The Indian government has ordered a judicial investigation headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.
Story from BBC NEWS: