Natwar meets PM over Volker Report

NDTV.com: "Natwar Singh has dismissed rumours that he plans to resign as External Affairs Minister over allegations in the Volcker Report.

But a section of Singh's Congress Party demanded that he step down.

As calls for the minister's resignation widens, he held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leader of the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi.

The minister is under pressure to quit after UN investigator Paul Volcker in his report said that Singh and the Congress Party paid bribes to Iraqi authorities to buy oil in the UN sponsored oil-for-food programme. Both have denied Volcker's allegations.

Separately, the government held a series of meetings with top leaders to plan the verification of Volcker Report.

Sources told NDTV the head of the verification exercise, will be named on Monday and he will be given the authority to ask for the original documents from Volcker.

The terms of references are likely to be the following:
How does the Congress, External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh figure in the report?
Was any notice sent to the parties that have been named in India?
Are the Iraqi documents accurate or not?
Was any contract signed with the alleged recipients?
Was any letter sent by any senior Congress leader to the Saddam regime?
The head of the verification committee will also meet UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Volcker. Officials in Delhi have raided the offices and homes of Andleeb Sehgal, the businessman accused of paying bribes to Iraqi authorities on behalf of Natwar Singh.

Sehgal, a friend of Singh's son Jagat Singh, was questioned by officials of the Enforcement Directorate. He will depose before them on Monday.

In comments to NDTV, Sehgal denied all the charges against him in Volcker?s report. He denied any links with the Swiss energy company Masefield AG, and said he was not present in Jordan or Iraq on the days stated in the report.

Koyla Energy agency, where Sehgal is the director was search by officials of the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax department.

His houses in south Delhi's Defence Colony and Jor Bagh area, as well as Sehgal?s Hamdan Export company in Panchsheel Park, which was named in the report were also raided by officials. Away from the political storm that is raging in the capital over the report, Natwar Singh and son Jagat hit homeground on Saturday, visiting villages and addressing rallies, as they toured Laxmangarh.

Natwar has been MP twice from the region and Jagat is currently the sitting MLA.

For both it was a chance for a show of strength, even as Singh is under pressure to resign from the opposition.

"The Congress party is 120 years old. We are ready to face your questions, we are not under any kind of pressure, our slate is clean," Natwar insisted.

Backed by the local Congress leadership and accompanied by Rajasthan Congress President BD Kalla, Natwar Singh addressed a rally close to his hometown Bharatpur.

But away from the political platform in the streets of his constituency, the Volcker Committee's findings are the main subject of discussion.

"We wonder what the outcome of the report would be and whether it will end the father-son's political career," said one resident.

"This happens all the time in politics. Sometimes one leader is in the middle of a controversy, at other instances somebody else is being accused," said another."
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