Natwar involved in Iraq oil scam, says Indian envoy

NEW DELHI—A serving Indian ambassador has accused India’s former foreign minister Natwar Singh of being involved in a scam to profit from a UN oil-for-food deal in Iraq. The comments aired Friday on Aaj Tak television sparked chaos in parliament and calls for Singh to be prosecuted.
Anil Maithrani, who worked closely with Singh in the Congress Party before being posted to Croatia, said Singh had received a special voucher to purchase oil cheaply from Baghdad. “The Iraqi embassy in Amman was a very key player. The Iraqis needed a green light, the green light was provided to them by Natwar Singh,” said Maithrani. “One (oil voucher) was given to him (Singh) by name the other one was given to the Congress party,” during a visit to Iraq in January 2001.
Singh led a four member team to Iraq which included Maithrani. “The fact of the matter is that both allotees ... in my view are exactly the same ... one has been to Natwar and the other one to the Congress Party. “One for Natwar’s personal services. Don’t forget that he has been the one who has been espousing Iraq’s cause,” said Maithrani. According to a report submitted by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to the UN in October, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s regime manipulated the oil-for-food programme to extract about 1.8 billion dollars in surcharges and bribes. Volcker named Singh as a non-contractual beneficiary of four million barrels of Iraqi oil allotted to Zurich-based firm Masefield AG.
Congress, India’s oldest political entity, is also listed as a beneficiary of a separate allotment of four million barrels of oil as part of the transactions. Singh, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing, was stripped of his foreign ministry portfolio last month when the scandal surfaced, but was retained as a minister without portfolio in the cabinet.
The Indian government has ordered a judicial enquiry into the allegations. In the upper house on Friday former foreign minister Jaswant Singh, now in the opposition, pointed a finger at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “The Prime Minister is also the Leader of the House ... he has given a clean certificate to Natwar Singh,” Jaswant Singh said. In the lower house, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani, spearheaded the opposition attack.—Agencies