Cong to go slow on taking action against Natwar
The Congress is unlikely to take action against the suspended leader immediately, reports Our Political Bureau in New Delhi.
By TNN |
Former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh’s efforts to talk into existence a Jat-Muslim combination based on anti-American sentiment in northern India notwithstanding, the Congress is unlikely to take action against the suspended leader immediately, reports Our Political Bureau in New Delhi.
The Congress, which had taken action against Mr Singh based on the findings of the Pathak Enquiry Commission, had also served a showcause notice to the leader and given him two weeks to respond to the question as to why he should not be expelled from the party. The Pathak report had indicted Mr Singh for having misused his official position in the Congress party to procure oil coupons under the UN oil-for-food scam in Iraq in ’02. After his suspension on August 9, Mr Singh has submitted his reply, but the mood in decision-making sections of the party suggests that the Congress is going to take its own time in giving its ruling. “That’s an issue that will take its time...let the man complete his term in the Rajya Sabha,” a senior Congress leader said. Mr Singh, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha in April ’02, has about two years of his term left.
On Mr Singh’s latest social engineering bid of stringing Jats and Muslims in parts of north India together, the Congress leader said: “His theory is probably fashioned on the line that if Lalu Prasad can take along the Yadavs and Muslim in Bihar, and Mulayam Singh in UP, then why not club Jats and Muslims in parts of northern India. But the two communities cannot be clubbed, they have little in common in electoral terms.” The Congress’ brushing aside of Mr Singh’s latest political gambit as a ‘whim’ of a theoretician reflects the equation that the two sides have settled down to.
The Natwar Singh issue had peaked following his suspension, with the diplomat-turned-politician hanging on to his new-found friends in the SP and BJP, but it began fizzling out when Mr Singh’s retracted some of his statements regarding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, or at least the tone in which they were made. This took place after Congress leaders held unofficial talks with Mr Singh. Since then, the Congress has blocked Mr Singh from making a speech on the Indo-US nuclear deal in the Rajya Sabha and also removed him from the editorial board of the Congress mouthpiece ‘Sandesh’. The party is now confident that it has the Natwar issue under control. Since his climb-down, Mr Singh has been maintaining that he was punished for his stance vis a vis the US.
The Congress, which had taken action against Mr Singh based on the findings of the Pathak Enquiry Commission, had also served a showcause notice to the leader and given him two weeks to respond to the question as to why he should not be expelled from the party. The Pathak report had indicted Mr Singh for having misused his official position in the Congress party to procure oil coupons under the UN oil-for-food scam in Iraq in ’02. After his suspension on August 9, Mr Singh has submitted his reply, but the mood in decision-making sections of the party suggests that the Congress is going to take its own time in giving its ruling. “That’s an issue that will take its time...let the man complete his term in the Rajya Sabha,” a senior Congress leader said. Mr Singh, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha in April ’02, has about two years of his term left.
On Mr Singh’s latest social engineering bid of stringing Jats and Muslims in parts of north India together, the Congress leader said: “His theory is probably fashioned on the line that if Lalu Prasad can take along the Yadavs and Muslim in Bihar, and Mulayam Singh in UP, then why not club Jats and Muslims in parts of northern India. But the two communities cannot be clubbed, they have little in common in electoral terms.” The Congress’ brushing aside of Mr Singh’s latest political gambit as a ‘whim’ of a theoretician reflects the equation that the two sides have settled down to.
The Natwar Singh issue had peaked following his suspension, with the diplomat-turned-politician hanging on to his new-found friends in the SP and BJP, but it began fizzling out when Mr Singh’s retracted some of his statements regarding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, or at least the tone in which they were made. This took place after Congress leaders held unofficial talks with Mr Singh. Since then, the Congress has blocked Mr Singh from making a speech on the Indo-US nuclear deal in the Rajya Sabha and also removed him from the editorial board of the Congress mouthpiece ‘Sandesh’. The party is now confident that it has the Natwar issue under control. Since his climb-down, Mr Singh has been maintaining that he was punished for his stance vis a vis the US.
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