Karat meets Natwar at his home, says we talked Iran

The CPM reaction as the oil-for-food scandal came to light was that the US and western countries had imposed ‘‘brutal sanctions’’ against Iraq for 11 years and were ‘‘biased against those who had cooperated’’ with the then Iraqi regime. ‘‘This needed to be borne in mind while investigating the Congress’s and Singh’s role in the programme.’’

The CPM is preparing a document on the Volcker report that will go on to prove that it is ‘‘not borne out by facts.’’ The Left also appears to be veering around to the view that Singh need not resign till allegations in the report have been investigated.

Karat gave the Minister the Left parties’ note on Iran but said that no commitment was given to him and Singh said the note would be studied. The Iran issue had been raised by the Left parties when the UPA-Left coordination meetings resumed after four months on October 27. It had been decided then that the matter would be taken up once Singh returned from Moscow.

Meanwhile, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan said he was not aware of Karat’s meeting with Singh and had no immediate plans to meet the Minister on the issue.

He said he would meet only the PM on the Iran issue. The CPI leader said his party was not preparing a document on the veracity of the Volcker report.