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A Tribune Exclusive
It was Chidambaram who fought for Natwar
Swati Chaturvedi

New Delhi, November 8
Now it can be said, for once Congress President Sonia Gandhi is being unfairly pilloried.

She wanted Mr Natwar Singh, who held the External Affairs portfolio until yesterday, and is embroiled in the Oil-for-Food scam, ejected from the ministry. But she found a stout supporter for him in the Finance Minister, Mr P Chidambaram, who worked overtime to ensure that he was retained in the cabinet, although as a minister without portfolio.

In the frenetic behind-the-scenes activities that preceded Mr Natwar Singh’s less-than-glorious ouster, Mr Chidambaram batted for him arguing that he should not be dropped.

Well-placed sources told The Tribune that in meetings attended, among others, by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, and Mr Chidambam, an irate Mrs Gandhi was of the firm view that Mr Natwar Singh should be dropped pending an investigation.

Others, including the Prime Minister, concurred with her opinion but it was Mr Chidambaram who persisted with his plea that he be retained in the cabinet till the inquiry found him guilty.

Interestingly, even the strange suggestion that the Congress party take the Volcker Committee to court by sending a legal notice came from Mr Chidambaram. But after Mr Volcker and the media ridiculed the idea, Mr Chidambaram was forced to admit during one meeting that his suggestion might have been ‘‘wrongly phrased’’.

Says a senior Congress party leader bitterly: ‘‘Mr Chidambaram wants to ruin the Congress party and Mrs Gandhi’s image. Mr Natwar Singh is not of much consequence. Ultimately, it’s the Congress Party’s image which will suffer. Even when he talks to us, he always refers to the Congress party as ‘your party’. Now we feel like asking him: ‘Are you not a member?”

The ire against Mr Chidambaram runs deep. Some of his Cabinet colleagues say that by his insistence on Mr Natwar Singh’s continuance, he has created a live issue for the Opposition. They want him out of the government because of his indiscreet comments on the Iran issue also.

Senior leaders are of the view that Mrs Gandhi, despite a long family relationship with Mr Natwar Singh, was extremely upset when the Volcker report came out. She is believed to have told the PM that the party’s image had taken a severe beating and agreed with the idea of an impartial probe.

The setting up of the Justice R.S. Pathak Commission and drafting of Mr Varinder Dayal for finding facts from the United Nations took much of the heat off the party but Mr Natwar Singh’s continuance has put it back in the dock.

Sources reveal that Mr Natwar Singh pleaded through intermediaries like Mr Ahmed Patel that Mrs Gandhi take a sympathetic view of the minister’s predicament. She did not want to budge but in the end Mr Chidambaram was able to have his way.

Cong embarrassed over Natwar drama
Anita Katyal
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 8
A day after the Natwar Singh episode came to a close, the Congress was still smarting over the embarrassment the party was put through for a week after the controversy over Iraqi oil deals hit the headlines. By all accounts, the party should have been relieved once Mr Natwar Singh was divested of his portfolio and a probe ordered to go into the Volcker committee references to the former External Affairs Minister and the Congress as non-contractual beneficiaries in Iraq’s food-for-oil programme.

But there was little cheer in the party that this twin action had succeeded in blunting the Opposition attack against the Congress in the coming Parliament session.

On the other hand, Congress functionaries were muttering that if Mr Natwar Singh had stepped down in the first instance, the party would not have suffered the kind of humiliation it did during the past week. “Of course, it would have been far more dignified if Mr Natwar Singh had put in his papers at the initial stages...but then we are talking of an ideal situation,” remarked an AICC functionary.

In fact, Congress members are also not too happy over Mr Natwar Singh being retained in the government as Minister without Portfolio. This, according to some partymen, only reflects the confusion in the Congress. It was pointed out that the party should have adopted a more categorical stance — it should have either backed the Minister or asked him to step down.

Although it was quite apparent from the beginning itself that Mr Natwar Singh had few friends in the party, he was depending on Congress President Sonia Gandhi to come to his rescue given his longstanding proximity to the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Mrs Gandhi, it is learnt, initially told the Minister that she would “leave to his conscience” to decide whether he should continue in the government. She is also learnt to have told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he take a dispassionate view of the matter.

The initial ambivalence was also attributed to the fact that the Congress party was also named in the UN enquiry committee report. Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, P.Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal, were, therefore, entrusted with the task of going through the voluminous report and it was only after they confirmed that the Congress was in the clear that the discussions moved on to the nature of enquiry that should be set up.