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Addressing the Press, Ram Naik said, "Leading a large delegation of business men to Iraq, he gave a letter from the former Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Mr. Saddam Hussein. He was offered coupons for Indian Oil by the Iraqi President himself." Mr. Naik said very rightly, "But he refused the offer when he was told that a surcharge of one dollar per barrel would have to be paid above the United Nations’ price." Mr. Ram Naik did the right thing. But what is next?

The next is very important. Here I come to the conclusion. "Mr. Naik, however, admitted that the businessmen who were part of the delegation would have done business with Iraq. When a Reporter said that deals worth more than a billion dollars were done, Mr. Naik did not deny or contradict the claim saying that he did not have figures. He was asked whether he had facilitated the deals for the Indian companies, Mr. Naik said, "as a leader of the Indian delegation it was his business to do so." Could not have some kickbacks come his way or that of other leaders in the NDA via the Indian companies? Mr. Naik said, "This is an allegation."

The Leader of the Opposition was talking about sovereignty and compromising the decision-making process. This Government, this Congress, this Natwar Singh is not sovereignty. What is sovereignty? A Government elected by its own people cannot decide what the price of its oil will be! What will happen to the BJP if the price of Himachal apple is determined by the American Administration, by the WTO at Geneva? What will they do?

I take pride in saying that I will work in the interest of the suffering people. It does not matter to me if you call the measure illicit or call it not illicit, I am a patriot. The people of Iraq will vouch for it. Going by the little amount of money paid as surcharge, you may call it illicit. How much is that money? How much will the total money paid as surcharge, what is being described as kickbacks, comes to? It is less than two per cent. It is 100 billion dollars. Eighty per cent benefit goes to the American companies. Still they are not satisfied and invasion takes place. The Leader of the Opposition speaks of sovereignty. But he has forgotten about the sovereignty of Iraqi Government. There lies a pattern. There is a pattern in the BJP’s stand.