Natwar dares Cong, faces expulsion

Former minister may move privilege motion against PM.

W ith former Foreign Minister K Natwar Singh moving a motion on the breach of privilege motion against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Rajya Sabha tomorrow, the Congress will have little option but to throw him out of the party.

Natwar Singh has also sought time to make a personal statement in the House tomorrow.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi telephoned Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi late evening to ascertain if Singh had indeed put his signature to the privilege motion.

As there is still time for him to withdraw the motion, efforts were on to persuade him to do so. But in the parallel, a showcause notice was being prepared by managers late in the night.

Through the weekend, the man, who was once the most loyal supporter of the Nehru-Gandhi-led Congress party, was busy mobilising MPs from parties clearly inimical to the Congress, explaining to them why they must support a motion to punish the PM for the leak of the Pathak Commission report. NDA Convenor George Fernandes called on him on Sunday. The NDA has scheduled a meeting tomorrow on the motion.

Although in view of past history, Congress President Sonia Gandhi was inclined to give Singh a long rope on this matter, clearly even she was unable to defend him after he had moved a privilege motion against a PM from his own party, putting her in the position of having to choose between the PM and her advisor on foreign affairs.

Although an official reaction from the party will come only after the report and an Action Taken Report (ATR) is laid on the table of the House tomorrow following a cabinet meeting earlier in the morning, the feeling is that Natwar Singh has banged the door shut on the party and has found new friends and allies.

Natwar Singh met Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh to mobilise opinion in favour of the motion and followed this up with a meeting with CPI's AB Bardhan.

In Lucknow, UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav made it clear that not only was Natwar welcome to join the SP, he would have no hesitation in offering the "injured" Jat leader a nomination from UP. This may not be necessary at all because if he is expelled from the party, Singh has the right to stay on as an "unassociated" member for the remainder of his term, though he cannot join another party.

According to Amar Singh(whose recent closeness and provision of logistical and legal aid to Natwar Singh is no secret), 33 MPs belonging to AIADMK, TDP and the Samajwadi Party will also move notices for a privilege motion which will come up in the Rajya Sabha tomorrow.

Natwar Singh himself chose not to react to reports that he has tabled a similar motion against the PM but sources in the Rajya Sabha secretariat confirmed that they were processing a privilege notice to the PM on which the Congressman had signed.

The way Amar Singh told the story, Natwar Singh was framed in a gigantic global conspiracy in which the principal actors were Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the Enforcement Directorate which comes in the jurisdiction of the Finance Ministry, the United States of America, and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).

Amar Singh said Natwar Singh had been critical of the US which is why the Volcker report had targeted him and said that he had been dragged before the Enforcement Directorate though he was only a non-contractual beneficiary while RIL had been named as a beneficiary but Mukesh Ambani had been let off from appearing in ED through a written missive by the Finance Minister.

Criticising "selected" probe against Natwar Singh and his family, the SP leader said, "Congress is probing against Congress, that too against a person who did not hold any position".

"Now Sandeep Tandon, husband of Anoo Tandon, an office bearer of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, is appearing on behalf of Mukesh Ambani", Amar Singh claimed adding "this shows the complexity in the matter".

He also alleged that two lawyers close to Ministers P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal, who were appointed to assist Justice Pathak, had told their colleagues that "they would fix Natwar".