Govt to probe Volcker charge

Probe team likely to have officials from the finance ministry, R&AW and police.

A "limited" probe is to be instituted into the charge that External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and the Congress accepted and paid bribes to the erstwhile Saddam Hussein regime to trade with Iraq under the UN's oil-for-food programme.

Government sources said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was keen that the foreign minister step down while the probe was on. The probe team is likely to comprise officials from the finance ministry, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the police. Who will head the team is not known yet.

A statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said, "The Government is deeply concerned about the unverified references made in the Volcker Committee report to the Congress party and External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh. The Volcker Committee report, as it stands today, is insufficient to arrive at any adverse or definitive conclusion. Therefore , the government is determined to go to the root of the matter and establish the truth or otherwise of these references. The matter is under serious consideration of the government and a decision will be announced shortly."

Meanwhile, the Congress said that it would send a comprehensive legal notice to the UN and the Volcker Committee for naming the party in the report.

The Congress will demand full disclosure of the material that the Volcker Committee has used to reach the 'unverified conclusion' that the party is a beneficiary, according to a press release issued by the All India Congress Committee this evening.

The Congress has demanded an unconditional apology for 'wrongly and maliciously' making a reference to the party in the UN probe report if the concerned parties fail to disclose the relevant material.

"The Congress had no dealings whatsoever in this connection with the government of Iraq or with any of its agencies, nor any other company or individual," said the release.

The Congress release and the PMO statement came after a day of hectic activity. The core committee of the government had an emergency meeting and later Congress President Sonia Gandhi met the prime minister.

The external affairs minister joined the meeting at around 5.00 PM. The statement was made a few minutes later.

The Opposition has moved swiftly on the issue. The BJP has written a letter to the prime minister, seeking clarifications and demanding that the external affairs minister step down.

The government fears that the BJP will find a connection between India's unexpected and unequivocal turnaround at the IAEA meeting in favour of the US and the "findings" of the Volcker Committee.

It was also worried that the Left parties might emphasise that by figuring in the Volcker report, K Natwar Singh had been "compromised", an official said.

The Left had noted that India had begun taking a flagrantly pro-US stance, possibly motivated by the external affairs minister's efforts to keep this issue out of the limelight, the official said.