Natwar may be asked to resign

Foreign Minister Kunwar Natwar Singh's days in the office could be numbered.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is believed to have ordered an informal preliminary investigation to determine his role in the $1.8 billion (Rs6.6 billion) oil-for-food scam during deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussain's regime.

Depending on the outcome of the informal inquiry, Natwar Singh may be asked to quit and a formal investigation will be ordered.

The Prime Minister's Office on Thursday announced the government's desire to go to the root of the controversy amid findings of the Paul Volcker committee report, naming the Indian minister as a non-contractual beneficiary of the oil deal.

The informal inquiry may also try to find out if any of the ministers of the then ruling National Democratic Alliance were involved, too, in the deal to silence the Bharatiya Janata Party's clamour for Natwar Singh's dismissal.

With barely 18 days remaining for the winter session of Parliament to start, the ruling Congress party is hard-pressed to come clean on the controversy to avoid being cornered by the Opposition.

The party is also worried about its implications on the remaining two phases of the crucial polling in Bihar, scheduled for November 13 and 19. Seriousness of the situation can be gauged from the fact that Prime Minister Singh has already held several rounds of meetings on the issue since Thursday.

The Left parties meanwhile have opted to go soft on the controversy.

"We talked to Natwar Singh [yesterday]. He consistently refuted the report saying it was baseless. We know many countries have refused the report, even Russians have said it is a forged document. So, at this point of time, it will be too early to disbelieve him [Natwar Singh]," said D. Raja, secretary of the Communist Party of India.

When asked to comment on the Congress Party's decision to issue a legal notice to the United Nations and to the Volcker Inquiry Committee, Raja said: "I do not see any relevance in Congress's decision to issue a legal notice to the United Nations. The UN is not a country but an organisation of 192 countries, and India itself is a member of it. In this case, suing the UN means suing ourself."