'Half Truth, Half Cover-Up'

The BJP has sought registration of a criminal case against all those named in the Volcker report as illegal Indian beneficiaries of Iraq's oil-for-food programme, insisting that Pathak Authority has been unable to do justice with the probe because of its limited powers.

BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley, who called the Authority report "half truth and half cover-up", maintained that the probe headed by former Chief Justice of India R S Pathak had no "coercive" powers to summon evidence from abroad.

"What the inquiry has not inquired into is qualitatively and quantitatively much more than what it has inquired into," he said in the wake of the tabling of the report in Parliament.

"The Pathak Authority's investigation was restricted to some aspects. It did not investigate most of them," he said, insisting that the Authority had no powers to probe the alleged Swiss money trail of the scandal that claimed the scalp of Natwar Singh and set him on an open confrontation with the Congress party.

Jaitley maintains that Singh and the Congress, both named in the Volcker report, were treated differently by the investigation. "Any committee which has no coercive powers to summon evidence is not able to do justice with such an inquiry. A criminal case therefore should be filed against all recipients and accused (in the Volcker report)."

"Who had signed the Iraqi oil contracts on behalf of the Congress as mentioned in the Volcker report?" Jaitley asked. "The (Pathak) report is based on documents which could be selectively and conveniently brought to the committee (Authority)."

He alleged that the authority was given no access to documents that could impact the government adversely. "It was a route move adopted by the UPA government, which was interested in unearthing half the truth."


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PTI