Amarinder govt finds Iraqi oil slush scam slippery
S P Singh
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has learnt in a most unlucky fashion how the world has become a global village. Something happening at the United Nations has left Amarinder's leeway channels with 10, Janpath, currently the fountainhead of political prowess in India, badly crippled.
Ever since one Mr Volcker started poking his nose into oil-for-food slush deals, the national audience of political theatre in India watched with interest the shenanigans of its deposed foreign minister, Kunwar Natwar Singh, on prime time TV. And now that the Pathak Inquiry Authority probing the scam has brought out the misuse of office and power by K.Natwar Singh for the financial benefit of his son's cousin Andleeb Sehgal. Natwar wrote to the Saddam Hussein regime letters of introduction and recommendation to give the young ones contracts for oil-for-food deals.
Things moved at a pace faster than you can say 'Saddam Hussein'. Pathak report was splashed by the Indian media even before Parliament could see a copy. Natwar promptly went in for the jugular, accusing teflon-coated reputation PM Manmohan Singh, of breaching Parliament's privilege. Congress coterie confabulated to find that the man who led its foreign policy charge for years was guilty of gross indiscipline. With equal alacrity, Natwar too suddenly realised that he has been making friends in all the wrong places, and now found the support coming more from Samajwadi Party, literally meaning 'Socialist Party' whose prime members seem to include Amitabh Bachhan, Anil Ambani, Aishwarya Rai etc.
But Iraqi oil-for-food scandal affecting Punjab's Amarinder Singh government? Oh yes! In a country where nepotism is taken as a force more potent than even perhaps what Adam Bellow could realise, Amarinder's leverage fulcrum with the high command was Natwar Singh, the royal brother-in-law of the Patiala royal scion.
That the brothers-in-law were always brothers-in-arm within the Congress was never a veiled secret. Naturally, Akali Dal leader Prakash Singh Badal has launched an attack more on belief than on information. "How can Amarinder not be involved?" is his line. That Natwar had immediately come to relax in the cooler confines of the Moti Mahal when the heat was on is something that the Akalis will make a lot of noise about.
Natwar's position as foreign minister was of immense help when Amarinder straddled the Punjab-to-Punjab bonhomie turf, creating history by crossing Wagah and later inviting West Punjab CM Pervez Elahi here. The way the post-facto permission for a surreptitious trip made in a hurry to Dubai came was also due to having a brother-in-law calling the shots in the foreign ministry. When the major topple-Amarinder offensive launched in 2003 by (now Deputy CM) Rajinder Kaur Bhattal-led dissidents fizzled out, the credit was being given to Natwar's behind the scene maneuverings.
Natwar's position as member of the all powerful Congress Working Committee (CWC) as well as his proximity to the Gandhi family has always been the brahmastra for Amarinder and a guarantor of an edge over those eyeing his job. He lost the Foreign Ministry, then lost the CWC membership, later the ministry itself, and is now being kicked out of the Congress.
When the drama began, Natwar had famously said he didn't even know who Volcker was. Volcker, for the record, said he never knew Natwar. So Amarinder cannot accuse the scam-buster. We are sure he has not even heard of Amarinder Singh, but the damage that his sleuthing has finally done to the Congress government facing elections is a few months can be crucial. After all, a whole wide flank at 10, Janpath is now left uncovered.
August 8, 2006