11-06-2005, 07:29 AM
<b>Extracting truth from Congressmen </b>
There is a sense of déjà vu in the latest corruption scandal involving the Congress Party. The same old Bofors saga resonates, albeit with a change in the dramatis personae. But barring that vital difference, the responses of the Congress Party-led government and the party spokespersons are almost similar.
Witness how Rajiv Gandhi had first denied, then prevaricated, then admitted wrong-doing but with the proviso that `neither me nor my family has taken moneyâ in the howitzer deal. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too first sought to make light of the international bribery scam by saying that the evidence against his foreign minister was not sufficient for him to seek his resignation.
When a day later the media lifted the veil partially on the innards of the racket, Manmohan Singh was obliged to change tack, and yield a little to the pressure exerted by the disclosures in daily installments.
While still asserting that the Volcker Committee report â as it stands today, is insufficient to arrive at any adverse or definitive conclusionâ, he nonetheless committed himself to â go to the root of the matter and establish the truth or otherwise of these referencesâ to Natwar Singh and the Congress Party in the said report.
The statement issued by the PMâs spokesperson on Thursday said that the government would soon announce its decision about the form such an inquiry could take.
Hopefully, such an inquiry would not turn out to be a white-wash job which, as you would recall, the one ordered into the Bofors scam was from the word go. Nor, it is hoped, would the PM endorse the ill-advised attempts of the Congress Patty to publicly question the veracity and motives of the UN in setting up the Paul Volcker investigation into the abuse of the oil-for-food programme by Saddam Hussein for ulterior purposes.
If the real objective behind setting up an inquiry is to contrive to extract a clean chit by hook or crook for Natwar Singh and the Congress Party, such an exercise would lack credibility. In order for the PM to establish his own sincerity in getting to the root of the scam, the least that is expected of him is to ease out Natwar Singh from the Cabinet.
In the interest of fairness and transparency, Natwar Singh must cease to be a Cabinet Minister till his bona fides are established by an independent probe. However it should be plain to the dim-witted that any attempt to de-link him from the doings of his son, Jagat Singh, in the scam would not wash.
For, Natwar Singh was allocated four million barrels of crude oil by Saddam for his consistent support to the latterâs cause in and out of Indian Parliament. If Natwar Singh in turn commissioned Hamdan Exports, a firm owned by his sonâs close friend and relative, Andy Sehgal, to execute the order and rake in the moolah, he cannot distance himself by arguing that he had nothing to do with Hamdan Exports.
Or that he is not responsible for the activities of his major son. It is significant that the Congress Party has been at pains to distance itself from Natwar Singh insofar as it has failed to offer a word in his defence ever since the scandal broke out into the open. Of course, if by so doing the party expects to save its own skin, it is living in a foolâs paradise.
After all, someone on its behalf also encashed one million barrels of crude oil out of the total four million allocated to it. According to media reports, the very same Hamdan Exports did duty for it too as it had done for Natwar Singh. Indeed, the role of Aneil Mathrani, who was Natwar Singhâs junior in the Congress Partyâs Foreign Affairs cell, has come under a cloud following reports that he too had made the pilgrimage to Baghdad to register his solidarity with the dictator.
Rewarded for his loyalty to the Supreme Boss, Sonia Gandhi, with a diplomatic assignment abroad after Natwar Singh became Foreign Minister, Mathrani should be immediately recalled. And asked to clear things up. Not unlike the Bofors scam, a newspaper has revealed an Italian connection in the Congress Partyâs oilfor food scam.
If Bofors saga did not teach the Congress Party to level with the people at the first available opportunity, no other scandal will. Which means the people will have to snatch the truth, morsel by small morsel, from the jaws of Congressmen and Congresswomen, too. But snatch it they must.
There is a sense of déjà vu in the latest corruption scandal involving the Congress Party. The same old Bofors saga resonates, albeit with a change in the dramatis personae. But barring that vital difference, the responses of the Congress Party-led government and the party spokespersons are almost similar.
Witness how Rajiv Gandhi had first denied, then prevaricated, then admitted wrong-doing but with the proviso that `neither me nor my family has taken moneyâ in the howitzer deal. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too first sought to make light of the international bribery scam by saying that the evidence against his foreign minister was not sufficient for him to seek his resignation.
When a day later the media lifted the veil partially on the innards of the racket, Manmohan Singh was obliged to change tack, and yield a little to the pressure exerted by the disclosures in daily installments.
While still asserting that the Volcker Committee report â as it stands today, is insufficient to arrive at any adverse or definitive conclusionâ, he nonetheless committed himself to â go to the root of the matter and establish the truth or otherwise of these referencesâ to Natwar Singh and the Congress Party in the said report.
The statement issued by the PMâs spokesperson on Thursday said that the government would soon announce its decision about the form such an inquiry could take.
Hopefully, such an inquiry would not turn out to be a white-wash job which, as you would recall, the one ordered into the Bofors scam was from the word go. Nor, it is hoped, would the PM endorse the ill-advised attempts of the Congress Patty to publicly question the veracity and motives of the UN in setting up the Paul Volcker investigation into the abuse of the oil-for-food programme by Saddam Hussein for ulterior purposes.
If the real objective behind setting up an inquiry is to contrive to extract a clean chit by hook or crook for Natwar Singh and the Congress Party, such an exercise would lack credibility. In order for the PM to establish his own sincerity in getting to the root of the scam, the least that is expected of him is to ease out Natwar Singh from the Cabinet.
In the interest of fairness and transparency, Natwar Singh must cease to be a Cabinet Minister till his bona fides are established by an independent probe. However it should be plain to the dim-witted that any attempt to de-link him from the doings of his son, Jagat Singh, in the scam would not wash.
For, Natwar Singh was allocated four million barrels of crude oil by Saddam for his consistent support to the latterâs cause in and out of Indian Parliament. If Natwar Singh in turn commissioned Hamdan Exports, a firm owned by his sonâs close friend and relative, Andy Sehgal, to execute the order and rake in the moolah, he cannot distance himself by arguing that he had nothing to do with Hamdan Exports.
Or that he is not responsible for the activities of his major son. It is significant that the Congress Party has been at pains to distance itself from Natwar Singh insofar as it has failed to offer a word in his defence ever since the scandal broke out into the open. Of course, if by so doing the party expects to save its own skin, it is living in a foolâs paradise.
After all, someone on its behalf also encashed one million barrels of crude oil out of the total four million allocated to it. According to media reports, the very same Hamdan Exports did duty for it too as it had done for Natwar Singh. Indeed, the role of Aneil Mathrani, who was Natwar Singhâs junior in the Congress Partyâs Foreign Affairs cell, has come under a cloud following reports that he too had made the pilgrimage to Baghdad to register his solidarity with the dictator.
Rewarded for his loyalty to the Supreme Boss, Sonia Gandhi, with a diplomatic assignment abroad after Natwar Singh became Foreign Minister, Mathrani should be immediately recalled. And asked to clear things up. Not unlike the Bofors scam, a newspaper has revealed an Italian connection in the Congress Partyâs oilfor food scam.
If Bofors saga did not teach the Congress Party to level with the people at the first available opportunity, no other scandal will. Which means the people will have to snatch the truth, morsel by small morsel, from the jaws of Congressmen and Congresswomen, too. But snatch it they must.