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Natwar
welcomes probe into Volcker charges
by Maya Singh
New
Delhi: A day after he was divested of the External Affairs
portfolio, K.Natwar Singh sought to smoothen ruffled feathers
in the corridors of power by telling the media outside his
official residence in the Indian capital that he was all for
the judicial probe into the allegations levelled by the Volcker
Inquiry Committee that looked into the Oil-for-Food scam engineered
by the Saddam Hussein Government in the mid-1990s. Encouraged
by his supporters from his Bharatpur constituency in Rajasthan,
Natwar continued to claim his innocence against Volcker's
charge that he and the Congress Party were guilty of being
indirect non-contractual beneficiaries of the Oil-for Food
deals. "I welcome this step of the Government. I myself have
been demanding a probe into the matter. Not me only, but many
big companies, including Reliance, Tata and Cipla have been
named in the Volcker Report. The investigations will reveal
all. The truth shall surface eventually. I am a small cog
in a larger organisation. The Congress is just too big to
be involved in this," Natwar said. He also said that he would
be attending the Winter Session of Parliament from November
23, and reiterated that he would be making a suo-moto statement
on the Volcker allegations, and hoped that what he said, would
clear his name once and for all. When asked to comment on
the Opposition's efforts of the last few days, Singh said
that he did not want to waste his time on this endeavour,
as everybody knew what the Opposition was all about. In a
surprise move on Monday evening, Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan
Singh stripped Natwar Singh of his External Affairs Ministry
portfolio in the wake of the controversy generated by the
Volcker Inquiry Commission that looked into the Oil-for-Food
scam.
Sources
at the Prime Minister's official residence in Delhi said that
Natwar Singh would continue as Minister without portfolio
for the timebeing, and that the responsibilities of the External
Affairs Ministry would be taken up by the Prime Minister's
Office (PMO). They also said that Natwar Singh had requested
the Prime Minister to divest him of his portfolio. Curtains
came down on Natwar Singh's role as India's Foreign Minister,
four days after former U.S.Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker
had released a report that named both Natwar Singh and the
Congress Party as illegal non-contractual beneficiaries of
the Oil-for-Food deals. With the political implications of
the charge gaining heat and publicity, despite Natwar's repeated
denials of involvement and his adamant refusal to resign as
the country's Foreign Minister, the Prime Minister appears
to have had no other option but to strip him of the responsibility
until further notice, especially after his comments that the
Indian Government was having a rethink on the November 24
Iran vote at the IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna.
The fact that a NDA delegation met President Kalam on Monday
afternoon and pressed for Natwar's resignation seems to broken
the proverbial straw on the camel's back as far the Government
was concerned. Natwar had been called in by the Prime Minister
on Sunday to discuss the matter once again, but he had then
ruled out rumours suggesting that he was planning to resign.
Separately, however, the government had held a series of meetings
with top leaders in the last few days to plan the verification
process of the Volcker Report. So far, the Congress party
has rubbished the BJP's demand of Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) enquiry into the matter, saying that the BJP has no
authority, moral or democratic, to ask for Natwar Singh's
resignation. On Monday, the Government appointed former Supreme
Court Chief Justice R.S.Pathak to head a one-man inquiry commission
to look into the veracity of the Volcker Report, and the allegations
thereof. Stating that his investigations would be unbiased,
Justice Pathak, who has also been a judge at the International
Court of Justice, The Hague, said he would be interacting
with former U.N.Under Secretary-General, Ambassador Virendra
Dayal, who has been appointed as the Government's pointsman
for collecting and collating all information on the controversy
that has hogged newspaper headlines in India for the past
four days. "We shall see how it goes, what is necessary and
I presume that the documentation which is being procured by
Mr.Virender Dayal will be before me. In addition, if I find
that I need more material on any particular aspect or the
present material produced is not sufficient, then I shall
take steps to get that material. And if necessary to take
the assistance of people who are either being said to be involved
in this entire scam and other people necessary. I should certainly
try to get them to help me. It doesn't matter, it is a totally
independent inquiry and all material pertinent to the reference
will be looked into by me. There is no question of anything
being held back," Pathak told reporters after being named
to head the enquiry. Reacting to the news of Natwar being
divested of the External Affairs portfolio, the BJP described
it as a face-saving cover- up. Senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas
Naqvi said that the appointment of Justice Pathak as a one-man
inquiry commission also had no meaning, as such a commission
had no locus standi to negotiate, interrogate or speak to
international bodies like the UN.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate, which is under the
Union Finance Ministry is continuing with its questioning
of Delhi- based exporter, Andaleeb Sehgal. Andaleeb Sehgal,
Export Director of Hamdan Export, who is said to be a friend
of Natwar Singh's son, Jagat Singh, was interrogated for the
second consecutive day on Tuesday by a team of officials,
two days after raids were carried out on his various premises
in the Indian capital. Reports said that on behalf of Sehgal's
firm, a Swiss company Masefield AG lifted oil barrels under
allotments to now ruling Congress party and Natwar Singh in
2001. The report by the UN -established Independent Inquiry
Committee, led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul
Volcker said, politicians in several countries were given
oil vouchers that could be sold for a commission to help the
former Iraqi leader in his attempt to get sanctions lifted.
Volcker also has claimed that everyone listed was given a
chance to clarify. The UN food-for-oil scheme began in 1996
and ended in 2003 and under the programme, Iraq was allowed
to sell oil to buy food, medicine and other goods to ease
the impact of sanctions. The UN report said some 2,200 companies
made illicit payments of 1.8 billion dollar to Saddam's government
under the scheme.