Still-Born Third World Reich

Despite the Left's outburst at the pronounced US tilt of the Manmohan Singh government in the recent past, Natwar Singh represented an old-world non-aligned position, a throwback to the Nehruvian era, a stand it was comfortable with. This, despite the vote against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors meeting a couple of months ago, when it sided with the West on referring the country to the United Nations Security Council. For the Left the ex-foreign minister has always appeared a lesser evil compared to other Congressmen perceived as unabashed supporters of the US.

Hence the comments in favour of Natwar. CPI(M)'s Prakash Karat made it amply clear that the Left views with suspicion the report by the so-called independent inquiry committee headed by Volcker. The Left also asked for an independent probe to look into whether the Congress or Natwar Singh made money from the oil-for-food programme. "Our stand on the Volcker report is that the government should first inquire into it, ascertain the facts, and then take action. The American extreme right wing was earlier gunning for the UN itself and its contempt for the world body has always been clear," said Karat.

The CPI's A.B. Bardhan also appeared to echo Karat's views when he said there is a political tilt to the report. Bardhan told Outlook: "Indeed, it appears that in the main body of the report, prepared under the US and UK occupation of Iraq, there is no mention of either Natwar Singh or the Congress. Why should the report be treated as sacrosanct when the Russians have objected to it? The French have condemned it along with the Chinese and the Germans. Why should Indians be the only one to be discredited?"

On the charges of the Congress and Natwar benefiting from oil deals, Bardhan said, "In the very first statement issued by the CPI and the CPI(M), we had said that there should be a probe if money has indeed exchanged hands. But the probe should be conducted by the Indian government."