Natwar gets clean chit from PM

Foreign Minister meets Manmohan, denies involvement.

Foreign Minister K Natwar Singh has managed to stave off threats to his job because of the Prime Minister, the Delhi bomb blasts and the support of the Left parties.

But, the Congress noted that its name was used by some individuals to "feather their nests", a minister said, adding that the party would examine the issue before recommending any action.

Singh met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today on his return from Moscow and denied any involvement in the alleged illicit payments, as mentioned in the Volcker committee report, the PM's media advisor said.

"The Prime Minister agreed that the facts mentioned in Table-3 of the report of the independent inquiry committee were insufficient to arrive at any adverse conclusion against the external affairs minister and he stands by him," the media advisor said.

A minister said the PMO and the government had adopted the same position taken by the Russian and French governments. Companies and individuals in these countries have also been named as having paid kickbacks to get contracts.

But, as the government was busy managing the fallout of the Delhi bomb blasts, the oil-for-food programme was relegated to the background today. Ministers present at the Cabinet meeting held to discuss the blasts said the foreign minister attended the meeting. They said he appeared unperturbed about the charges against him.

The party, however, was more concerned about the fact that somebody named it as a beneficiary of the trade with sanction-hit Iraq. The party will like to know who the person was.

"If someone used the party's name to make money, action needs to be taken," a minister said. "There has to be a piece of paper with a name, some authorisation. It has to be proved that he (Singh) was a front," the minister said.

The echoes of the Bofors case, where Rajiv Gandhi's name was dragged into a bribery case, is not far from the party's mind. Managers say there is no such entity as the Congress party - it is Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Therefore, if the Volcker report is an elaborate web that may involve her, the party will have no hesitation in taking action to prevent that.

The Left meanwhile came out in cautious defence of Natwar Singh and asked for an investigation into the matter before reaching any conclusions. Both the CPI and the CPI-M noted that Iraq was under sanctions for more than a decade and "resorted to various methods to deal with the situation".

"It should be noted that the United States and the other western countries who were instrumental in imposing sanctions are biased against all those who had dealings with the then Iraqi government. These circumstances must also be kept in mind when the facts and evidence are examined, " the CPI M said.

The sense in political circles was that any threat to Natwar Singh had been averted. That no official enquiry had been set up suggested that the government would soft-peddle the issue for the moment.