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            The Congress claims that an innocent goodwill delegation was sent to Iraq to proclaim their solidarity with the Iraqi establishment. But this is entirely untrue, and it is seen by the events that are set out by the Pathak Report.

Firstly, Shri Andaleeb Sehgal, Shri Jagat Singh, Shri Vikas Dhar and Shri Arvind Khanna are all Congress people, who make several companies together with the express purpose of making a deal for Iraqi oil. Thereafter, they are informed, and I quote according to paragraph 10.1 of the Report :

MR. SPEAKER: You give a structured reply. I think, a proper reply can be given by you, if you think so.

… (Interruptions)

SHRIMATI MANEKA GANDHI : The pointed issue is did Natwar Singh represent the Congress Party or did he represent himself and his family?   This is a question that Justice Pathak has tantalizingly left in the air.  

            Anil Matherani, a Congressman in the Foreign Affairs Cell of the Congress Party, working with Shri Natwar Singh and who was made the Indian Ambassador to Croatia was in Baghdad and Amman along with Natwar Singh in the year 2001.   He says in his taped interview to `India Today’ that the Iraqis needed a green signal for giving the oil vouchers to the Congress Party and this I quote from him and “Natwar provided it”.  Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with the Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadhan on his visit to Delhi on November 27, 2000 accompanied by Natwar Singh gives the first indication to the Iraqi authorities that Natwar Singh carried the weight of the Congress President.   This is a quotation.   “As if to confirm to the Iraqi regime that Natwar represented Sonia Gandhi, she also sent a letter to Saddam Hussein through Natwar Singh.  Justice Pathak ignores almost all of Matherani’s revelations and completely refuses to ask about this incriminating letter that Natwar Singh himself had revealed that he had been given by his Party President to take to Iraq. 

SHRIMATI MANEKA GANDHI :   I am sorry, Sir.

MR. SPEAKER:  Nobody is here deciding about the English language.

SHRI GURUDAS DASGUPTA (PANSKURA) :  We should maintain the dignity of the House and the discussion.

SHRIMATI MANEKA GANDHI :  What dignity?

SHRI GURUDAS DASGUPTA:  Otherwise, we shall stoop low in the eyes of the people who are watching us.… (Interruptions)

SHRI KAPIL SIBAL: Sir, she says: “What dignity?” I agree with her. What dignity! SHRIMATI MANEKA GANDHI:  That is what I was going to say. Can you stoop even lower? I come to my point.  Clumsily, he climbs into the minds of the Iraqis and claims to speak for them. I quote:

            How does Justice Pathak come to the conclusion that the Iraqis misunderstood a personal request from Natwar Singh as a request from the Congress Party?
            How does Justice Pathak come to this astounding conclusion? On what basis? After all, Natwar Singh leads the Congress Delegation, delivers a letter from the Congress President, expresses solidarity on behalf of the Congress Party to the Baath Party. Where does Natwar the Congressman end and Natwar the self-serving favour seeker begin and on what material evidence can we divorce one from the other? The fact that this entire trip has been made by these Congress members in coordination with an already tied up buyer company is borne out by the letter written by the Masefield representative Nick Swan who writes to SOMO from England the very next day after the delegation meets SOMO that he would like a visa in connection with, I quote from paragraph 12.1: “political allocation of two million barrels of Basrah Light Crude”. This is further borne out by a letter written to the Oil Minister of Iraq by an Iraqi bureaucrat in which approval is sought for the contract and the name of the purchasing company is already listed as Masefield AG and the purchaser is Natwar Singh, member of the Indian Congress Party.