M A I N   N E W S

Natwar meets Sonia, offers to quit
To hand over resignation on PM’s return

New Delhi, December 5
A day after his removal from the Congress Steering Committee, Union Minister Natwar Singh, who has been in the thick of Volcker controversy, tonight offered to resign, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said.

Mr Sharma said Natwar Singh spoke with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is in Moscow on a visit, over the phone and conveyed to him that he would hand over his resignation on his return from Russia on Wednesday.

After talking to the Prime Minister, Natwar Singh drove to 10 Janpath and met Congress president Sonia Gandhi to inform her of what he had conveyed to Manmohan Singh, Mr Sharma said.

Natwar Singh also told the Prime Minister that he was going to meet Ms Gandhi, the AICC spokesperson added.

Natwar Singh, who was accompanied by his wife, drove out of Ms Gandhi’s residence after an hour-long meeting without talking to the waiting mediapersons.

The former External Affairs Minister has been under tremendous pressure from the Opposition to resign from the Union Cabinet, where he is now a minister without portfolio, after his name figured in the Iraq oil-for-food scam and the fresh disclosures made by former Indian envoy to Croatia Aneil Mathrani.

The Congress today gave indications of the party distancing itself from Natwar Singh when it said his continuance in the party’s highest decision making body was not considered desirable and hence he was removed.

AICC general secretary Ambika Soni and Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal had said it was now left to Natwar Singh to decide whether to resign or not.

He had yesterday said that his resignation at this point would be an “admission of guilt”.

Natwar’s late-night offer is a clear fallout of erstwhile Indian Ambassador to Croatia Aneil Mathrani's interview to India Today pointing an accusing finger at Mr Natwar Singh for his alleged role in securing coupons in the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal in Iraq. Mr Mathrani's efforts to retract his statement that it was off the record failed to cut any ice either with the Congress party or the Opposition NDA with the BJP in the vanguard.

With Mr Natwar Singh out of the Congress Steering Committee, partymen were distraught that the Union Minister continued to remain in office. — PTI, UNI

Volcker report rocks Parliament for third day
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 5
The political fire sparked off by the Volcker report continued to rage unabated with both Houses of Parliament adjourning with the Opposition storming the proceedings today.

Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were rocked for the third consecutive day as an aggressive Opposition questioned the rationale of the Congress in removing Natwar Singh from the party's highest policy-making body while allowing him to continue in Government.

They persisted with their demand for resignation of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Minister without Portfolio Natwar Singh.

The Opposition were up on their feet the moment the House assembled and started raising slogans. As the stalling of the proceedings continued after a brief adjournment, the presiding officers adjourned the two Houses for the day.

The Enforcement Directorate questioned Mathrani with regard to his reported claims that Natwar Singh had been a beneficiary in Iraq's oil-for-food programme.

The ED took Mathrani from his residence in Vasant Kunj to its headquarters here to quiz him, official sources said. Earlier, Mathrani was questioned by officials of Intelligence Bureau, ED and RAW at a secret location here soon after his arrival from Zagreb on Saturday night.

However, the CPM came to the rescue of Natwar Singh posing a question to BJP led NDA: "Why Reliance is not being inquired into and why the Opposition is blissfully unaware about the non-contractual benefits accruing to it?"

Government defers all-party meeting
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 5
The stalemate in Parliament over the Volcker issue is unlikely to subside till the return of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from Moscow, as the government has deferred its plans for an all-party meeting tomorrow due to insistence of the Opposition on the presence of the Prime Minister.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told reporters that the meeting, planned to break the logjam on the Volcker issue following suggestions from the NDA, was put off due to Opposition’s insistence over the presence of the Prime Minister, who is also leader of the Rajya Sabha.

Mr Dasmunsi said he had asked BJP leaders at a meeting today if the Opposition would cooperate in smooth running of the two Houses tomorrow.

“They said their stand would be known tomorrow morning after consulting the allies,” Mr Dasmunsi said.

The Minister said the government was ready for another discussion on the issue except through adjournment motion, as the same subject could not be brought up twice.

He said the government was prepared for a general debate on the adverse impact of foreign funding on Indian politics.

Mr Dasmunsi said the BJP had written a letter to the Speaker to conveying NDA’s desire to bring a motion on Mitrokhin papers but the government submitted that there would be no end to such a debate if particular paragraphs were discussed from books.

He said the Speaker would decide as to what manner the issue would be discussed.

Earlier, a meeting of UPA allies presented a united face in the face of disruption from the Opposition with leaders of the Congress, the RJD, the NCP, Left Parties, the DMK, the PMK and the MDMK backing the statement of the Prime Minister on the Volcker issue given in the two Houses after “interview” to a magazine by former Indian Ambassador to Croatia Aneil Mathrani.

Mr Dasmunsi said due to “politics of disruption” by the NDA, significant issues like flood situation in Tamil Nadu and the Disaster Management Bill could not be taken up.

Congress making Natwar scapegoat, says Advani
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 5
Accusing the Congress of making Mr Natwar Singh a “scapegoat” to “save its skin” in the oil-for-food scam, leader of the Opposition L K Advani today demanded that the ruling party must apply same yardstick and remove Ms Sonia Gandhi as Chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC).

“Congress Ka Lafda Hai, Natwar To Bakra Hain” (The Congress is the culprit and Natwar Singh is being made a scapegoat), Mr Advani said in Mumbaiya Hindi and rubbished the suggestion that the Opposition was raising its pitch on the Volcker report to divert attention from the Uma Bharti issue.

Addressing a press conference here, he said “It seems obvious that the present mood in the ruling establishment is that if blame is put on one person, the party may perhaps be able to get out of it”.

“It was bad enough for an individual to be named in the Volcker report but that the Congress has been named is more serious. You cannot have double standards. Natwar Singh has been stripped of his portfolio. The same approach should be adopted in the case of the Congress president also. Until investigations are complete, the NAC Chairman should quit the office”, Mr Advani said.

Mr Advani said:“The Prime Minister says he will consider if Natwar Singh offers to resign. All these statements show the ruling party in bad light. The minister and his family are repeatedly saying don’t make us a scapegoat.”

Terming the Winter Session of Parliament as a “single scam session” and “Iraqi oil scam session”, he said, the “oil scam is getting murkier with every passing day”.

“While the principal defence of the ruling coalition was that the charges made in the Volcker report were unverified, the Aneil Matherani episode has given a “new turn to the story. It is a verification by an insider that there is substance in the allegations,” he said.