From Mole Hill to Oil Slick: Story of Two Singhs
In the past few weeks, Indian politics have been full of surprises and controversies. With the Parliament is in session, the Monsoon Session, both the ruling and opposition parties are given headache and are on their backs during this period by their own respective party member. While Jaswant Singh, the ex-Indian Foreign Minister (FM) under the NDA, started the mole controversy, the oil slick or the Volcker controversy involves the current UPA government, its ex-FM K. Natwar Singh. Apart from this similarity of being an ex-FM, there are even more similarities between the two Singhs.
They both claim to have descended from minor royal lineage; they are both distinguished by a style that can best be described as sanctimonious, long-winded and self-righteous. They have no mass base politically and have depended on the largesse of their leaders or parties to prop up their political fortunes. Both are political lightweights, who now are creating news that is best described as making a mountain out of a molehill, or rather an oil slick.
Let’s start with the mole controversy before sliding into the slippery oil slick.
The mole controversy came up when the ex-Indian Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh, released his book, A Call to Honour, last July. In his supposed to be a tell all book, Jaswant Singh claims that since the early 1990s, when the Congress Party was in power, the Indian nuclear program has been under the watchful eyes of Uncle Sam. He claims that an agent was present in the PMO who then leaked India’s nuclear secrets to the US. He even claims that this mole is still there in the PMO. Singh’s claim of a mole in the PMO has incensed the Congress Party thus forcing PM Manmohan Singh to ask clarification about this mole in his office.
However, having been pressed to name the mole in the PMO, Jaswant Singh has said he did not have a definite name about the US mole in the government when Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister. He did not have the names or any clues about the claim he made in his book. And because of this seemingly miscalculated political maneuver for personal gains, his Bharatiya Janata Party has distanced itself from the issue.
Singh’s inability to give names or clues to the request of clarification from the PMO has raised question on his claim about spy in Narasimha Rao’s government. Does Jaswant Singh really know anything about the mole? And if so, will that revelation embarrass the UPA government? So far there is no answers to these questions.
The story of the second Singh, K. Natwar Singh of the Congress Party, is slightly different from the first Singh. Natwar Singh’s controversy is about misuse of authority given to him by his party for personal gains. The oil slick controversy came up in November 2005 when the independent Volcker Committee on UN’s Oil for Food program for Iraq released its report in which several Indian companies, individuals as well as an India political party, the Congress Party, were named as the non-contractual beneficiaries of the program and have paid kickbacks to the then Iraqi government to procure the right to import oil from Iraq thus violating the program meant for helping Iraqis from sufferings from the economic sanctions. Natwar Singh and the Indian Congress Party denied this report thus the subsequent establishment of Pathak Committee to probe the scam.
The result: Pathak Inquiry Authority indicts Natwar and Jagat for helping persons close to them bag three Iraqi oil contracts whereas it gives clean chit to the Congress Party.
As leader of the Congress delegation to Iraq in 2001, Natwar Singh had misused his official position for furthering the commercial interests of his son Jagat Singh’s cousin Andaleeb Sehgal for his company Hamdaan Exports. Apart from including Jagat and Andaleeb as members of the delegation without the consent of the Party leader, he wrote letters to the Iraqi government requesting them a favor to give oil contract to Andaleeb. Convinced that Natwar’s request was from the Party, the Iraqi government agreed to issue the contract to the Hamdaan Exports.
Facing this mole and oil controversies, the governing Congress party appears more than ready to handle the issues. Even though the UPA government is worried that adverse political fallout may cast a shadow on the Indo-US nuclear deal but it determines to challenge Jaswant to prove and name the spy in the government and it is ready for a debate in the Parliament. Being cornered and singled out by the Congress Party and distanced by his own party, Jaswant seems to be in a maze to give an answer. His mistimed political attack to the Congress Party seems to snowball and hit back harder than the outcome he had expected.
As for the fate of the second Singh, even though the Pathak Committee found that no money from the oil contract yet to be found in Natwar or his son Jagat, but his defiant to challenge his own party by issuing a privilege notice to the PMO for the leak of the Pathak Committee report before being tabled in the Parliament has given enough reason for the Congress Party to issue disciplinary action to Natwar. Congress Party suspended Natwar Singh from his primary membership of the Congress Party for misusing post and issued a lengthy showcause notice as to why he should not be expelled for his several acts of omission, including bringing “disrepute” to the party. He has been given two weeks to reply.
Summing up the story of two Singhs, any political misadventure could result in political downfall. In a democratic society like India, there are rules in the game of politics that must be followed by all the players. Any failure to follow the rules can be too costly as has been proven by the Singhs.
They both claim to have descended from minor royal lineage; they are both distinguished by a style that can best be described as sanctimonious, long-winded and self-righteous. They have no mass base politically and have depended on the largesse of their leaders or parties to prop up their political fortunes. Both are political lightweights, who now are creating news that is best described as making a mountain out of a molehill, or rather an oil slick.
Let’s start with the mole controversy before sliding into the slippery oil slick.
The mole controversy came up when the ex-Indian Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh, released his book, A Call to Honour, last July. In his supposed to be a tell all book, Jaswant Singh claims that since the early 1990s, when the Congress Party was in power, the Indian nuclear program has been under the watchful eyes of Uncle Sam. He claims that an agent was present in the PMO who then leaked India’s nuclear secrets to the US. He even claims that this mole is still there in the PMO. Singh’s claim of a mole in the PMO has incensed the Congress Party thus forcing PM Manmohan Singh to ask clarification about this mole in his office.
However, having been pressed to name the mole in the PMO, Jaswant Singh has said he did not have a definite name about the US mole in the government when Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister. He did not have the names or any clues about the claim he made in his book. And because of this seemingly miscalculated political maneuver for personal gains, his Bharatiya Janata Party has distanced itself from the issue.
Singh’s inability to give names or clues to the request of clarification from the PMO has raised question on his claim about spy in Narasimha Rao’s government. Does Jaswant Singh really know anything about the mole? And if so, will that revelation embarrass the UPA government? So far there is no answers to these questions.
The story of the second Singh, K. Natwar Singh of the Congress Party, is slightly different from the first Singh. Natwar Singh’s controversy is about misuse of authority given to him by his party for personal gains. The oil slick controversy came up in November 2005 when the independent Volcker Committee on UN’s Oil for Food program for Iraq released its report in which several Indian companies, individuals as well as an India political party, the Congress Party, were named as the non-contractual beneficiaries of the program and have paid kickbacks to the then Iraqi government to procure the right to import oil from Iraq thus violating the program meant for helping Iraqis from sufferings from the economic sanctions. Natwar Singh and the Indian Congress Party denied this report thus the subsequent establishment of Pathak Committee to probe the scam.
The result: Pathak Inquiry Authority indicts Natwar and Jagat for helping persons close to them bag three Iraqi oil contracts whereas it gives clean chit to the Congress Party.
As leader of the Congress delegation to Iraq in 2001, Natwar Singh had misused his official position for furthering the commercial interests of his son Jagat Singh’s cousin Andaleeb Sehgal for his company Hamdaan Exports. Apart from including Jagat and Andaleeb as members of the delegation without the consent of the Party leader, he wrote letters to the Iraqi government requesting them a favor to give oil contract to Andaleeb. Convinced that Natwar’s request was from the Party, the Iraqi government agreed to issue the contract to the Hamdaan Exports.
Facing this mole and oil controversies, the governing Congress party appears more than ready to handle the issues. Even though the UPA government is worried that adverse political fallout may cast a shadow on the Indo-US nuclear deal but it determines to challenge Jaswant to prove and name the spy in the government and it is ready for a debate in the Parliament. Being cornered and singled out by the Congress Party and distanced by his own party, Jaswant seems to be in a maze to give an answer. His mistimed political attack to the Congress Party seems to snowball and hit back harder than the outcome he had expected.
As for the fate of the second Singh, even though the Pathak Committee found that no money from the oil contract yet to be found in Natwar or his son Jagat, but his defiant to challenge his own party by issuing a privilege notice to the PMO for the leak of the Pathak Committee report before being tabled in the Parliament has given enough reason for the Congress Party to issue disciplinary action to Natwar. Congress Party suspended Natwar Singh from his primary membership of the Congress Party for misusing post and issued a lengthy showcause notice as to why he should not be expelled for his several acts of omission, including bringing “disrepute” to the party. He has been given two weeks to reply.
Summing up the story of two Singhs, any political misadventure could result in political downfall. In a democratic society like India, there are rules in the game of politics that must be followed by all the players. Any failure to follow the rules can be too costly as has been proven by the Singhs.
Labels: politik
blog by Mas Qisa'i at 12:28:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home for More Stories