'Sonia knew all about Iraq trip'

Former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh today made loaded insinuations about Congress President Sonia Gandhi being "aware" of his Iraqi ventures, even as he swore by his loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family and stepped up the attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

According to Natwar Singh's account of his Iraq visit in 2000 as head of the Congress delegation, Gandhi had given him a letter for Saddam Hussein, which he had handed over to Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz; two weeks before his visit, the Iraqi oil minister had come to Delhi and called on Gandhi in his presence; Natwar Singh, therefore, made a courtesy call on the Iraqi oil minister during his visit to Baghdad "" the meeting, which, according to the Pathak report, sealed the oil contracts for Andaleeb Sehgal.

He had briefed about his "political discussions" in Iraq to the Congress President who was "fully aware of what was discussed and transpired" in Iraq, said Natwar Singh at a press conference at his residence on Friday.

"We all know no Congress worker, MP, MLA or minister can take any action without the knowledge and approval of Sonia Gandhi. Not a leaf moves in Congress without her authority. I worked closely with her for eight years," said the beleaguered leader who was "aggrieved" by the fact that his suspension from the party was announced around midnight much before he was sent the show cause notice, which he got yesterday.

Asserting that he stood by his previous remarks about Manmohan Singh being weak and lacking experience of even municipal elections, he added more sting to it today.

"At this juncture, the nation needs a decisive, resolute and forceful leadership." He, however, left it to others to decode that what he meant was a change of prime minister: "It's up to you to understand."

The self-proclaimed "dedicated Nehruite" was ostensibly bracing up to drag the Congress President into his now-familiar mudslinging game, if his desperate attempt to secure a rapprochement with Gandhi, as betrayed during an hour-long interaction with the media, failed.

"Sonia Gandhi, in her generosity and greatness, has said nothing against me, nor will I say anything against her....Never will I cast any aspersions on the Congress President," said the indicted leader.

This assertion of loyalty was soon followed by those insinuating remarks about the Congress President's awareness, even though he admitted that he had not informed Sonia about the three damning letters recommending Andaleeb and his company to Saddam regime.

"I am assuming that the letters were mine. If I write a letter and somebody misuses it, I am not responsible for that. I did not take any monetary benefit." He asserted that he had met the Iraqi oil minister for two-three minutes only and he never talked about oil-for-food programme with any Iraqi leader.

Natwar refuted the Pathak report about not informing Gandhi about adding two more persons, including son Jagat Singh, to the delegation.

"I wrote to Soniaji. I had no authority to add any name. Jagat was with because I was seventy one and had undergone a heart surgery."