Natwar removed from CWC

Pressure mounts on him to quit Council of Ministers

A day after K Natwar Singh was dropped from the Congress I's Working Committee "on grounds of propriety", the party strove to dot the i's and cross the t's to repeatedly drive home the point that Singh should quit from the Council of Ministers on his own.

"The description of his stay in the steering committee by the highest body of the party headed by Sonia Gandhi as "untenable" is a clear message (to Natwar). There can be no clearer message," senior party leader and union minister Kapil Sibal told reporters. The minister said if Singh was taking time to "understand" the message, it was a different matter.

Sibal, however, said the party's message did not mean that Singh was "guilty or innocent", a fact, which will be established by the inquiry ordered by the government.

Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had endorsed the steering committee's decision. It was for the Prime Minister to decide on whether Natwar Singh should continue in his Cabinet, she added.

However, top sources in government said Sonia Gandhi took the decision to drop Singh from the party's highest decisionmaking body only after it appeared that his son Jagat, Aniel Mathrani and Natwar Singh were making contradictory statements.

It was also felt that the Iraqi government's documentation could reveal some papers that the Congress party was unaware of and that later revelations could embarrass the party.

However, sources said, the party did not want the Prime Minister to sack such a senior minister because that would be equivalent to establishing his guilt. They wanted him to quit on his own, these sources said. This was the reason pressure was kept up on him all of yesterday and today.

Meanwhile, today Jagat Singh broke his silence to address reporters and pleaded that people should wait for the Justice Pathak Commission of Enquiry to finish its probe before pointing fingers at him and his father. He said he and his father were even prepared for a CBI investigation.

'We are interesting in only one thing at present: clearing our good name. At the end of the day, politics is not everything. Good name and honour are paramount to anybody.'

Jagat Singh, refused to answer when asked whether he felt that Congress had deserted his father at this juncture.

'I am not answerable for what the party does. We are talking for ourselves. We have been dedicated workers of the Congress party. We have fought elections, lost elections, we have struggled for the party. Now, what stand the party takes, neither me nor my father can influence. It is up to the party.'

On whether it was proper for his father to stay on as union minister in the wake of the inquiry into the allegations made against him by the Volcker report on the oil-for-food scam, he said: "nowhere is it written that a union minister cannot be investigated against. People can come here and question him".

He also said that it was clear that the Enforcement Directorate had not been able to find any evidence against him despite questioning his friend Andaleeb Sehgal of Hamdan Exports, who had also been on the 2001 trip to Iraq, and others over the past one month.

Today for the second day, former envoy to Croatia, Aniel Matherani was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate about his reported claims. Singh had been a beneficiary in Iraq's oil-for-food programme.