Natwar defiant in reply to party show-cause

Suspended Congress leader K Natwar Singh has asked the party’s disciplinary action committee (DAC) to refer the issue of his expulsion to Sonia Gandhi. Not inclined to seek reconciliation with the party leadership, Singh’s six-page reply to the show-cause notice issued against him is defiant.

Writing to A K Antony, the committee chairman, Singh said “it is rather extraordinary that my case for suspension/ expulsion has been initiated by and is being considered by a committee of which two members, including yourself and another member, both of whom have earlier been expelled by the Congress for six years for anti-party activities and had launched their own parties…. In view of this, my case should be referred to the Congress president. The former External Affairs minister was suspended after he was indicted by the Pathak Authority for misusing position to get oil contracts for people close to him.

Natwar was issued a show-cause notice on August 9 by the disciplinary action committee.

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Singh said Pathak had not referred to his affidavit submitted during the hearing. Neither had he referred to the one-hour deposition made by him on May 31. “Then why were we called and why was I asked for the affidavit,” he said adding no country in the world, except India, had taken the Volcker Committee report seriously.

Singh, who will be addressing a Jat rally in Jaipur tomorrow, said the show-cause notice said the Pathak report had revealed his “misconduct” and asked where the term had been used by the probe panel.

With Natwar’s reply, his expulsion from the party is now a foregone conclusion. Though party leaders had earlier maintained that further action would depend on his reply, his reply has done little to help his case.