| AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA |
V SUNDARAM
The Congress party has suspended Natwar Singh from primary membership of the party for misusing his position to get oil contracts in Iraq and a show cause notice may be issued to him asking him as to why he should not be expelled from the party. This usual and well-known congress drama has been enacted after Natwar Singh has been indicted by Justice R.S. Pathak in his Inquiry Report on the Iraqi oil scam. The Congress party has officially taken note of Justice Pathak's finding that Natwar Singh misused his position to get oil contracts. The decision to suspend the 75-year-old Natwar Singh has been taken after a 90-minute meeting of Congress disciplinary action committee and announced by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, one of the members of the Committee. This Committee is headed by A.K. Antony and Sushilkumar Shinde is the third Member. The decision came a day after the Report of the Justice Pathak Inquiry Commission was placed in Parliament along with the report of the government which accepted all the findings of the authority. Pranab Mukherjee told reporters that as leader of the Congress delegation to Iraq in 2001, Natwar Singh without obtaining any authority from the Congress President 'expanded the list of delegates to include his son Jagat Singh and cousin Andleeb Sehgal even without her knowledge. Natwar Singh has also been indulging in and carrying on a propaganda against Congress party bringing it to disrepute. On these grounds, Natwar Singh has been suspended from primary membership of the party and a show cause notice would be issued to him 'shortly' asking him why he should not be expelled from Congress.'
Natwar Singh has filed a breach of privilege notice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Rajya Sabha in connection with the leakage of the contents of Justice Pathak's report to the media even before it could be placed in Parliament. The stream of calculated political deceit flowing from the Congress High Command and let loose on our poor NATION has been perpetual and uninterrupted after the midnight of August 14 th, 1947. If Natwar Singh is considered as a renegade by the 'Gharwali' Congress Committee headed by A.K. Antony, with Pranab Mukherjee and Sushilkumar Shinde as Members, then I would like to remind our deaf and dumb and blind countrymen that all the three specially Sonia-chosen favourites of this disciplinary Committee have been bigger renegades in the not very distant past!! A.K. Antony has revolted several times against the Congress headed by that Indian Hitler Indira Gandhi—the dictator who imposed an unwarranted emergency on our nation in 1975. Sushilkumar Shinde got out of the Congress with Sharat Pawar in 1978 and joined the Progressive Democratic Front. Natwar Singh has been dog-like in his unshakeable loyalty and fidelity to the Congress party and the Nehru family for more than 45 years. Subash Chandra Bose was stabbed by the Congress Party headed by Mahatma Gandhi in 1938. Purushotamdas Tandon was stabbed by the Congress Party headed by that pseudo-secular eunuch Nehru in 1951. Sanjeeva Reddy was stabbed by the Congress Party under Indira Gandhi in 1969. He bounced back to stab her with Presidential authority in 1977. Narasimha Rao was stabbed by the Congress Party under Sonia Gandhi in 1998. A long-standing loyalist of the Congress Party has been stabbed by Sonia Gandhi today with Christian compassion and pseudo-secular aura if not élan. This has been the disgraceful internal political record of the Congress Party in our national life before and after our Independence. Oscar Wilde said: 'Every Saint has a past and every sinner a future'. Perhaps, Natwar Singh stands a reasonably good congress chanceless chance of becoming the A.K. Antony, Pranab Mukherjee and Sushilkumar Shinde of tomorrow!! I am saying this without any apprehension or trepidation because for the Congress Party today, even eternal India is disposable and expendable but not timeless and immortal Sonia Gandhi.
This pseudo-secular paper tiger called Natwar Singh who quakes with mortal fear at the sight of Sonia Gandhi (today's Mahatma Gandhi!!), has declared bravely that he is going to wage a war against Dr.Manmohan Singh, the UPA Government and the Congress Party. In a shameless manner he has said: 'I will not say anything against Sonia Gandhi but I am not going to leave the others. This Prime Minister should go back to the Delhi School of Economics and teach economics. He is not fit to rule the country. There have been eleven Prime Ministers of India since independence, but there has been only one Prime Minister———and I am going to write to the GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS about this——who has never even contested a Municipality election.' I am positive that Justiice R.S.Pathak was encouraged by this Prime Minister to doctor his report and that he would be given some position or the other (positively the post of Vice-President of India with a Bharath Ratna to boot either before or after——theses words within brackets mine and mine alone!). I know Pathak, I know how all this is done. No one can doubt that Natwar Singh has all the credentials and the track record to prove all this and more!!
In this context I cannot help bringing to public notice a blatant act of favouritism shown by Dr.Manmohan Singh to an IAS officer called Sanjay Krishna of Assam cadre. He has recently become Joint Secretary (Economic Affairs) thanks to the Himalayan patronage of Dr.Manmohan Singh. When Dr.Manmohan Singh got elected to the Rajya Sabha from Gauhati in Asssam, it was Sanjay Krishna who helped Dr.Manmohan Singh to get his name included in the local Electoral Rolls as a swift hijacking operation soon after an advance was paid for the purchase of a property to legally justify his inclusion. It was a clear case of triumph of carcass of electoral procedure over the governing spirit and purpose of that procedure. It was blatant murder of all norms of democracy. It is reported that Sanjay Krishna had to wait for his quid-pro-quo till 1999 when his name was recommended by Dr.Manmohan Singh to Murasoli Maran for his appointment as Director (Export Promotion) in the Office of the Tea Board in New York. He remained in New York till June-July 2004 till Dr.Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister. As a matter of course, Sanjay Krishna was hijacked into the Office of the Prime Minister in the larger Public Interest as a Director. Today he has been elevated to the post of Joint Secretary (Economic Affairs). Was not George Orwell right when he wrote: 'Though all of us are created alike, yet some are more equal than others.' Against this background I would only say that both Natwar Singh and Dr.Manmohan Singh heve covered themselves with everlasting Congress glory by issuing recommendation letters to their chosen favorites at two different points of time!!
In my article in News Today in December 2005 titled 'A Poetic Testament of Natwar Singh's Faith' I had observed:
'Charles Baudelaire, one of the greatest of French Poets, had men like Natwar Singh in view when he wrote: The poet is like the Prince of the clouds, who writes the tempest and scorns the archer. Exiled on the ground, amidst boos and insults, his giant's wings prevent his walking.'
It is clear on all counts that Natwar Singh has now completely fallen from grace. Having voluntarily chosen the path of disgrace and infamy as a matter of bounden Congress duty, Natwar Singh now finds himself rudderless and friendless even within the Congress Party. Like Cardinal Wolsey who was disgraced by Henry VIII of England in the 16th century despite his dog-like loyalty, Natwar Singh has been thrown to the winds by Sonia Gandhi. Yet his faith in Sonia seems to be unshakeable and invincible. Here is an imaginary and plausible Poetic Testament of his deathless faith in Sonia if not the Congress Party:
You ask me, my brother, when will I reach perfection
Hear my answer:
I shall approach perfection, when I feel that Sonia is an infinite space and a sea without a shore,
An everlasting fire, an unquenchable light,
A calm wind or a raging tempest, a thundering sky or a rainy heaven,
A singing brook or a wailing rivulet, a tree abloom in spring, or a naked sapling in autumn,
A rising mountain or a descending valley,
A fertile plain or a divine desert.
Is not our global leader Sonia all this and more?
When I feel all these, I have already reached halfway to perfection. To attain my supreme goal
I must then perceive that I am a helpless child dependent upon my Sonia mother,
A wayward youth lost in love
A true worshiper in Sonia's temple, a criminal in her prison,
A nun suffering between the flowers of her faith and the thistles of her loneliness,
A prostitute caught between the fangs of her weakness and the claws of her needs,
A poor man trapped between his bitterness and his submission
A rich man between his greed and conscience.
When I can experience, see and understand
These elemental Congress things, then I can reach my life's goal of supreme perfection
And become a great shadow of Sonia's shadow!
(The writer is a retired IAS officer)
e-mail the writer at vsundaram@newstodaynet.com