Advani demands letter carried by Natwar to Iraq be made public

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Aug 4: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani today demanded that the Government make a statement in Parliament on Monday on the alleged leakage of the Justice Pathak Committee report to the media before it was laid in the House.

Addressing newspersons, Mr Advani also demanded that the report be placed in Parliament without any further delay so that a full-fledged debate could be held on it.

The former BJP president accused the government of having misused its authority to exonerate the Congress party, and to ''make Shri Natwar Singh a scapegoat for the entire scandal''.

He said the Justice R S Pathak Committee report submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday was selectively leaked to the media to convey that the Authority has exonerated the Congress Party and indicted Mr Natwar Singh for misusing his authority.

The Pathak Committee was set up to inquire into the Volcker Committee's report naming the Congress party and former external affairs minister Natwar Singh as ''non-contractual beneficiaries of Iraqi oil allocations''.

Mr Advani said the Government was guilty of contempt of Parliament by ''telling the people that the Pathak Panel has given the Congress Party a clean chit.'' Referring to the media reports that the Pathak panel had indicted Mr Natwar Singh on the basis of three letters he had written to Iraqi Oil Minister introducing businessman Andaleeb Sehgal and others, Mr Advani said Mr Singh also carried a letter from Congress president Sonia Gandhi addressed to then Iraqi president Saddam Hussain and demanded that the same letter be made public.

He also expressed doubts whether the Congress President was also interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate and the Pathak Inquirty Authority as done in the case of Mr Natwar Singh, his son Jagat Singh, Mr Sehgal and Mr Aditya Khanna.

Mr Advani recalled how the Congress Party had initially dubbed the Volcker's allegations as ''rubbish''. Former Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni had even gone to the extent to terming the report as ''false and baseless'' and the Congress threatening legal action against the United Nations.

He also recalled how the Prime Minister had gone a step further giving 'a clean chit' to Mr Natwar Singh but later asked him to step down.

UNI

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