Natwar Singh bitter with Gandhi family, Congress for his dismissal: Abhishek Singhvi

NEW DELHI: Congress on Friday said Natwar Singh's bitterness with the Gandhi family over his dismissal from the UPA government and the party was understandable but the leadership had no option once he was named in the oil-for-food scandal.

Arguing that the former foreign minister was only indulging in vendetta with his comments about the Gandhi family, AICC spokesman Abhishek Singhvi raked up the Volcker report that named Natwar as a "non-contractual beneficiary" in the oil-for-food programme.

"Non-contractual is UN language for corrupt," Singhvi said.

To run down Natwar's comments as the rant of a man facing graft charges, Congress spelt out the damning paragraphs from the Volcker report about Natwar, his son Jagat and his friend Andleeb Sehgal in its press briefing to show that the former foreign minister was a bitter man after being sacked by the Congress leadership.

"It was an uncompromising, principled stand taken by the Congress that Natwar Singh was asked to quit the government. Congress had no option but to take serious cognizance of the Volcker report," the spokesman said.

Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa slammed Natwar's behaviour as a royal family's attack on a leader representing the common man, underlining that Natwar belongs to the palace of Bharatpur. "This kind of libelous personal attack is what one has come to expect from the scions of former princely families. Firmly rooted in feudalism, they cannot stand the rise to power of politicians who reflect the common man's aspirations," Bajwa said in a statement.