Volcker & Bofors - Congress Party involvement

[Guest]

I want BJP/NDA to start this slogan. It is a powerful slogan.

GALI GALI ME SHOR HAI
CONGRESS PARTY CHOR HAI

[Guest]

Natwar Singh offers resignation?<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->but <b>Natwar Singh </b>is believed to have told those who spoke to him that his conscience was clear and retorted: "Why should I resign?"

He even claimed that he had support of the<b> Left parties and CPM chief Karat </b>had come and met him<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Tu mera chor mai teri chorni.
Brotherhood. <!--emo&:bcow--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/b_cowboy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='b_cowboy.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Minister's refusal to quit mars India's ruling party By Jo Johnson in New Delhi
Wed Nov 2,12:00 PM ET

India's foreign minister is at risk of becoming a political embarrassment for the Congress-led government following his refusal to resign over allegations that he profited from the Iraqi oil-for-food kickback scam, analysts said on Wednesday.

A UN-backed independent report by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker last week named K. Natwar Singh as a recipient of bribes from Saddam Hussein in a report that has rocked the Indian ruling party.

The furore surrounding Mr Singh's continuation in office is likely to overshadow the new parliamentary session that opens on November 23 and weaken the government's already limited ability to push ahead with reforms.

Mr Singh has so far received only tepid backing from Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, who said there was "insufficient" evidence in the Volcker report to justify any "adverse conclusion" about the minister.

Worryingly for the foreign minister, Congress's communist allies, who provide the government with a majority in parliament, have demanded a "proper investigation" into the charges levelled at the former civil servant.

The Bharatiya Janata Hindu nationalist opposition party (BJP) called again for Mr Singh's resignation yesterday, saying "every word he speaks will be suspect and his statements on foreign affairs will be suspect".

Mr Singh, 74, has dismissed the allegation that he was a "non-contractual beneficiary" as "baseless and untrue" and part of a campaign to malign the Congress party, which was also accused of benefiting financially from the programme.

The foreign minister has promised a detailed statement refuting the charges but has so far restricted himself to saying that the Volcker report into the oil-for-food scandal had as much credibility as US intelligence reports into weapons of mass destruction.

"I am not going to speak through the media. I will make a . . . statement when parliament meets [later this month]," Mr Singh told PTI news agency.

Navtej Sarna, joint secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, on Wednesday refused to comment.

Mahesh Rangarajan, a political analyst, said: "It's the biggest challenge of Natwar's career. The prime minister's statement is ominous, as is the fact that none of the Congress party's coalition partners has backed him up."

He added: "The pressure will go up, not down, because no government in this country can afford to take on both the Communists and the BJP, and if it becomes damaging to the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi, they can tell him to step aside."

Speculation over who might replace Mr Singh at the foreign ministry has so far focused on Pranab Mukherjee, defence minister and de facto deputy prime minister, P. Chidambaram, finance minister, and Mani Shankar Aiyar, petroleum minister.

Seen as an arch advocate of India's commitment to the non-aligned movement, he Singh pushed hard for a resolution condemning the US invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, when he was in opposition but head of Congress's foreign affairs team.

The Volcker report claimed that Masefield AG, a Swiss company that lifted millions of barrels of oil allocated to Mr Singh and Congress, also had links to Hamdan Export, a company managed by a friend of Jagat Singh, the foreign minister's son.

The report claimed that Iraq selected oil recipients in order to influence foreign policy and international public opinion in its favour. Mr Singh is by far the most senior serving minister from a big democracy allegedly implicated in the scandal<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Financial Times Limited - FT.Com

[Guest]

<b>Cong's notice to UN bizarre: BJP</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->BJP on Thursday night termed as "bizarre" the Congress decision to issue a comprehensive legal notice to the UN and the Volcker Committee and accused the ruling party of wanting to embarrass the country to "defend personal and partisan interests".
<b>"This is a bizarre move. It is astonishing that to defend personal interests of an individual and partisan interests of a party, the Congress and the Government want to put the country in an embarrassing situation", </b>party General Secretary and Spokesman Arun Jaitley said.

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>"India aspires to be a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and cannot be expected to litigate against an international institution in its own domestic and municipal courts", </span>he said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
See now these low life congress want to embarrass India.

God save India from these scums.

[Guest]

<img src='http://intellibriefs.com/images/natwarsingh.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

[Guest]

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story....t_id=81312
Cong stain spreads: Natwar OSD, now envoy, flew to Jordan same day as son

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->An investigation by The Indian Express has revealed that a senior Congress office-bearer, Aneil Mathrani, who was secretary of the party’s foreign cell—Natwar Singh was its chairman then—flew to Amman, Jordan on January 18, 2001, the same day that Natwar’s son Jagat Singh went there.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Volcker report clearly identifies the fact that the rights (to lift oil) allotted to both Natwar and the Congress party were the very ones against which Hamdan Export made the “illegal” payments. These payments are supposed to have reached the Saddam Hussein regime.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Man! I hope BJP fries these CONman party......... <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

Jahan raja vyapari, praja bhikari. The question is will the PM initate investigations into this and Natwar step aside till probe is completed (could take couple decades a la Bofors)?

[acharya]

<b>Cong move is diplomacy at its worst: BJP</b>

November 04, 2005 19:13 IST

Describing the Congress decision to issue a comprehensive legal notice to the United Nations as "Indian diplomacy at its lowest," the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday demanded that External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh be dropped immediately if the credibility of the government and the prime ministerial office was to be restored.

* Natwar may resign if probe is ordered

"Instead of ordering a domestic probe (into the Iraqi oil deals), the foreign minister alleges that the Americans have fixed him due to his opposition to the sanctions and the war. The Congress has trivialized the issues by threatening legal action against the United Nations. This is Indian diplomacy at its lowest," party General Secretary Arun Jaitley said in a
statement from Patna.

* Congress welcome to send legal notice: Volcker

Maintaining that the Volcker report was a document of high international credibility, he claimed that Russia, Switzerland, Australia and South Africa had already directed domestic probes into the facts disclosed by the report.

*
Complete Coverage: Volcker Report

Instead of sending a legal notice to Natwar Singh and the other epicentres of the scam, the Congress chose to send a legal notice to the United Nations, which is incapable of being sued in India's municipal courts, he added.

"This is an opportunity for the prime minister to decide whether he runs a government or merely occupies an office. The credibility of the government, governance and the prime ministerial office is at stake," Jaitley said.

[Guest]

I was debating where to post, Traitor thread or unconsitutional power or...Well here it is <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Pioneer.com
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>NRI tycoon names Sonia </b>
Yogesh Vajpeyi/ New Delhi
Party on the defensive--- As External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh fought a rearguard battle to retain his place in the UPA Government, the political storm generated by Iraq's oil scam on Saturday hit Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

<b>An Iraq-based Indian businessman has now claimed that Mr Singh got the controversial oil contract from the then Iraq President Saddam Hussein after he presented him a letter of solidarity from Ms Gandhi.</b>

This is the first time that Ms Gandhi's name has figured in the scam after the UN-sponsored Volcker Committee report last week listed Mr Singh and the Congress Party as "non-contractual beneficiaries" of the Iraq food-for-oil programme.

The NRI businessman Haridarshan Singh Majie, whose company has been based in Iraq for 30 years, has given several interviews to the media in the past few days corroborating the contents of the Volcker report and the involvement of Mr Singh.

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>A TV channel quoted him on Saturday as saying that Saddam gave Mr Singh the oil contract after the latter met him in 2001 and presented him the letter from Ms Sonia Gandhi.</span>

Mr Majie claimed that Saddam forwarded Ms Gandhi's letter to the Iraq oil ministry and it was part of record on the basis of which the Volcker Committee prepared its report listing Mr Singh and the Congress as beneficiaries.

Stung by the Majie's revelation, the Congress went into denial mode. <b>"The reports that Ms Sonia Gandhi is involved in the scandal are absolutely false and baseless," </b>Congress general secretary Ambika Soni told mediapersons.

However, she did not deny that Ms Gandhi had written the letter in question. "It is quite natural for the Congress president to give a letter to the Head of a Government as Congress maintains ties with many countries," Ms Soni explained.

The opposition NDA leaders found the Congress' explanation inadequate. Reiterating the demand for Natwar Singh's ouster, NDA Convener and Janata Dal (U) leader George Fernandes made it clear that the Congress and its president must explain their position to the people of India.

<b>"It is now proved that Natwar Singh and the Congress have amassed hundreds of crores of rupees. In the wake of serious allegations against her party, Ms Gandhi should make her position clear,"</b> Mr Fernandes said.

BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi ridiculed the UPA Government's defence of Mr Singh and the Congress threat to serve a notice to the UN on the issue. "Yeh to ulta chor kotwal ko daante waali baat hai ( It's a case of a thief accusing the policeman," he said. <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->

<b>Mr Mejie said that he himself had met Mr Singh along with a delegation that included the Minister's son Jagat Singh in Baghdad</b>, and the Minister, then in the Opposition, was the only member to have got an audience with Saddam.

<b>The NRI businessman who had hosted a dinner for Mr Singh and his delegation in 2001, claimed that the then Iraqi Oil Minister Aamar Rashid later told him that the oil contract had been awarded to Mr Natwar Singh</b>.

In his media interviews Mr Majie pointed out that while <b>all the ministries in Iraq were plundered and their records destroyed, the US forces took care to seal the oil ministry right at the beginning</b>.

"The contracts and other documents are very much in tact and the Volcker report is based on these records. Its chilidish to say that Mr. Volcker was settling political scores on instructions of the US," he said.
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[Guest]

<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 money’ 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 “ as it stands today, is insufficient to arrive at any adverse or definitive conclusion”, he nonetheless committed himself to “ go to the root of the matter and establish the truth or otherwise of these references” to Natwar Singh and the Congress Party in the said report.

The statement issued by the PM’s 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 latter’s cause in and out of Indian Parliament. If Natwar Singh in turn commissioned Hamdan Exports, a firm owned by his son’s 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 fool’s 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 Singh’s junior in the Congress Party’s 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 Party’s 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.

[Guest]

Sonia Gandhi and Natwar deserve Benajir Bhutto and Nawab Shariff treatment.

[Guest]

Natwar removed as Foreign Minister
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Prime Minister has kept the portfolio with himself and said that it would return to Natwar as soon as he is cleared off all charges.

With deliberations in crisis mode within the government and among the UPA coalition on the dangers of retaining Natwar Singh, PM Manmohan Singh finally took the step to brush aside the oil taint that was tarnishing his image as the country's most honest and principled premier.  <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rolleyes.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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[Guest]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1539554,0008.htm
Natwar removed as Foreign Minister, to be Minister sans portfolio
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->K Natwar Singh was on Monday shifted from his job as External Affairs Minister to facilitate a probe into his suspected involvement in Iraq's Oil-for-Food Programme but would remain in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Cabinet as minister without portfolio, official sources said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I think Natwar is covering for Sonia. That's why they are doing everything to keep this gaddi for natwar until the time passes by and people foget the scandal. They made him Minister without portfolio. MMS will keep this portfolio. So we will stay without a External afairs minsiter until a report is cooked up to absolve him all the fault.

India's prestige is going down. <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->

Look SONIA/NUTWAR: All that money is STOLEN from Iraqi kids' food by you and SADDAM. ENJOY the DINNER U ITALIAN B1TCH!

[Guest]

According to TV channels in India, Sonia had directly received Rs 400 Crore and invested in stock market.
Both are covering each other. Now we know why Sonia is protecting drained person Nutwar.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> the country's most honest and principled premier<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Joke of the century.
Manmohan is most corrupt PM India ever had. His ministry is full of rapist, criminal with long charge sheet, his minister are on foreign government payroll. He is part of famous corrupt club called UPA.

[Guest]

<b>Iraqi oil scam: Punjab CM denies involvement</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"<b>Andaleep Sehgal is my first cousin and Union External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh is my brother-in-law,</b> but it does not establish that I am involved in any of the scam," the Chief Minister said while responding to allegations made by opposition Shiromani Akali Dal.

Singh also denied claims that <b>his son Raninder Singh and Andaleep Sehgal had formed a company for oil business with Iraq</b>
....
"As far as security to <b>Jagat Singh is concerned, it was his mother, who is my sister also</b>, to whom security was provided," he said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Family first, works very well here.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Nov 7 2005, 09:44 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Nov 7 2005, 09:44 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->According to TV channels in India, Sonia had directly received Rs 400 Crore and invested in stock market.
Both are covering each other. Now we know why Sonia is protecting drained person Nutwar.
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Mudy

Can you imagine how much the US and Bush are blackmailing her to force enuch like MMS to sign all nuclear agreeemnts and how vulnerable we have become security wise.. <!--emo&:furious--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

Pioneer.com
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Natwar Trishanku; Govt in limbo </b>
Navin Upadhyay / New Delhi
Week-long drama exposes helplessness of PM----- The uproar over Volcker Committee's indictment of outgoing external affairs minister Natwar Singh has placed him in the preposterous position of a<b> jobless minister without portfolio</b>, but the week-long drama has once again exposed the infirmity and helplessness of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.  

<b>The fact remains that the Prime Minister could not either sack or compel Mr Singh to put in his papers, something desperately desired by Mr Manmohan Singh to save his face as 'Mr Clean' of Indian politics. </b> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->

Even after a shadowy compromise was reached, the PMO had to issue a statement that Mr Singh has himself volunteered to step down as the External Affairs Minister, but this apparent act of graciousness was not reciprocated by Mr Natwar Singh who maintained his sullenness.

It is now an open secret that the Prime Minister and his cabinet colleagues were unanimous that Mr Natwar Singh should go after Congress' legal experts told the <b>Prime Minister that his continuation would be untenable in view of the allegation against him and his son and their links with Andy Sehgal, the man who deposited Rs 3.22 crore in Jordan National Bank as illegal surcharge.</b>

There are clear indications that the evidence recovered during the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid at Hamdaan Exports offices and Andy Sehgal's interrogation by the ED further narrowed the Prime Minister's option. Clearly, the raids and Sehgal's interrogation on Sunday were timed to provide inputs to the Government to form its strategy. <b>The presence of Finance Minister P Chidambaram at the meeting when the Prime Minister called Mr Natwar Singh and persuaded him to resign with a face-saver, underlines the significance of the ED raid. Mr Chidambaram as the Finance Minister is overall boss of the ED.</b>

Incidentally, just three days ago, the Prime Minister forced RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav to direct Minister of State Jay Prakash Narain Yadav to resign from the Union Council of Ministers. In comparison to Mr Natwar Singh, Mr Yadav faced minor charges. Sources said that the Prime Minister told Mr Yadav that if the Minister did not resign, he would have second thoughts about campaigning in Bihar on Tuesday. It is a different matter that Mr Yadav had many legal options before him. Also hardly anyone in the country was so worked up about the continuation of Mr Yadav.

But not being able to have his way in removing a Minister of his own party, clearly shows that the Prime Minister's writ does not run as effectively as he would have liked. The failure of the Prime Minister to obtain Mr Singh's resignation will have serious implications in coalition politics and give leeway to his allies when a similar situation arises involving their own ministers.

Over the last four days, selective leaks from the Congress and the PMO have created an impression that both the Government and the party would like to see the back of Mr Natwar Singh. Even Mr Natwar Singh went around dropping hints in his media interactions that a section of the party leaders were against him. He conveyed his indignation against his party colleagues to even a senior Left leader.

The way the entire Natwar Singh episode has been handled both by the Congress and the Government does not bolster the image of Ms Sonia Gandhi either. The Congress president allowed the situation to drift the way she did in the case of change of guard in Jammu and Kashmir. Congress leaders and the media were more eager to know the mind of Ms Gandhi than the signal coming from the PMO. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Mrs Gandhi held a series of meeting with the PM and Mr Natwar Singh but could not ask him to quit. Why? That is the million-dollar question. The answer would await further disclosure.</span>
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Vijak,
Answer to your question.

[acharya]

<!--QuoteBegin-vijayk+Nov 7 2005, 06:00 AM-->QUOTE(vijayk @ Nov 7 2005, 06:00 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Nov 7 2005, 09:44 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mudy @ Nov 7 2005, 09:44 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->According to TV channels in India, Sonia had directly received Rs 400 Crore and invested in stock market.
Both are covering each other. Now we know why Sonia is protecting drained person Nutwar.
[right][snapback]40773[/snapback][/right]
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Mudy

Can you imagine how much the US and Bush are blackmailing her to force enuch like MMS to sign all nuclear agreeemnts and how vulnerable we have become security wise.. <!--emo&:furious--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' /><!--endemo-->
[right][snapback]40786[/snapback][/right]
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WHEN THE INDIANS ELECT PARTIES LIKE THEM THE COUNTRY IS VULNERABLE DUE TO THEIR PAST DEALINGS WITH SHADY OPERATORS.

The current congress party is actually a cabal of opportunists which have shady dealings with foriegn govts.

[Guest]

Can we have a separate thread for Volcker report ? I still dont understand the whole thing and the posts are scattered.. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->