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(The writer is a retired IAS Officer)

Both the Congress and the BJP, by themselves are in minority in the Lok Sabha. The great question before the country today is whether parliamentary rights can be effectively enjoyed by the BJP minority particularly when the party opposite, namely the shameless Indian National Congress Party, at the cost of all reputation, character and dignity, are resolved to cling to office in a rickety UPA coalition-Government and drain the last dregs of that ill-gotten cup. Every citizen in India is asking the question: “Is this UPA Government above Party Government or below Party Government?” That is determined and settled by Sonia Gandhi.

It is this operational confusion at the highest level that has made the External Affairs Minister, K Natwar Singh, come out with an amazingly ignominious statement: “As foreign Minister, I have spoken to our Permanent Representative to United Nations half a dozen times (since the Volcker Committee Report was made public). I have asked him… please get an appointment with the Secretary General, to have an appointment with Paul Volcker and find out the truth and let us know… If there is anything wrong that we have done, we would like to correct it. If we have not done so, then we should convey our displeasure”. This very shaky reaction by Natwar Singh clearly shows that he is oscillating and vacillating between the two extreme spheres of unavoidable silence and unmentionable shame. His statement almost reminds me of a last minute desperate SOS sent by the Captain of a sinking ship, soon after it was torpedoed by an enemy submarine.

The Congress Party and Natwar Singh have been named by the Volcker Committee as non-contractual beneficiaries under the oil-for-food programme in Iraq. The point to be noted is that this relates to a period when Congress Party was in the opposition and Natwar Singh had no official position in the Government of India. This is an indisputable fact which neither Congress Party (with or without the help of its Leftist partners) nor can Natwar Singh question today.

This being the case, I am unable to understand how K. Natwar Singh can direct Nirupam Sen, India’s permanent representative to United Nations, to seek an appointment with Kofi Annan or Volcker to verify the truth relating to a sordid commercial drama, in which the Congress Party and Natwar Singh are alleged to be indirectly involved. For the alleged political misdeeds of Congress Party in opposition and alleged private misdeeds of Natwar Singh when he was in no way connected with Government of India, Nirupam Sen, who is the official representative of more than thousand eight million people of India today, cannot be asked to function as ‘their’ representative and verify the truth or otherwise of the findings in the Volcker Committee Report.

The fact of the matter is that the Volcker Committee has in no way indicted the Government of India in its report. One point is therefore very clear. As a representative of Government of India today in the United Nations, Nirupam Sen has no official responsibility to provide an air-raid shelter to the Congress Party in general and Natwar Singh in particular against the splinter attacks from opposition parties flowing from the publication of the Volcker Committee Report. This seems to be the wide-spread public perception today.

As a former Civil Servant, of no significance whatsoever, I am also concerned about another problem which can perhaps affect the honour of every Indian citizen. I am thinking of a possibility that when Nirupam Sen meets Kofi Annan and Paul Volcker, there is every likelihood of their putting a difficult and unanswerable question to Nirupam Sen: “Are you seeking a clarification on behalf of the Government of India or are you representing Sonia Gandhi as Congress President and Natwar Singh in his private capacity? ”

It is in this context that Government of India will be performing a supreme public duty in formally requesting Nirupam Sen or any other responsible civil servant to ascertain and verify the facts relating to the questionable transaction precisely on account of the fact that Natwar Singh happens to be the External Affairs Minister of India today. The nation can ill afford to have an indicted Cabinet Minister in the Ministry of External Affairs. Unfortunately there is a lot of confusion in the pubic mind arising out of the want of clear and categorical response from the Government of India on the sensitive aspect of this issue.

Honesty of purpose should normally prompt frankness of statement. Fraud includes the pretence of overriding knowledge when knowledge there is none. As far as I can see, the traditional badges of fraud are liberally spread over the Oil For Food transaction in prodigal profusion. The way in which Natwar Singh and many other ministers in the UPA Government have been rattled by the Volcker Committee Report brings to my mind the following observations of Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes:

“It is a question of how strong an infusion of fraud is necessary to turn a flavour into a poison”.

Tail piece:

The message of the Congress Party (Natwar Singh Not excluded), and the constituents of the UPA Government to the nation today is: “We are small men dedicated to the great and noble cause of OURSELVES and because our cause is great and because our cause is noble, something of that greatness, something of that nobility, falls on us also and blesses us and above all our families--now and forever. Amen!”

V Sundaram

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