Click to play videoNew Delhi: With Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi publicly distancing herself from former external affairs minister Natwar Singh, the suspended Congress leader is beginning to train his guns on her.
On Sunday, nearly a year since a political storm rocked the Capital, he hit out at Sonia Gandhi saying he she was behind his recent problems with the Enforcement Directorate in the Iraqi oil-for-food scam.
When asked if he had betrayed the Congress president over the Iraq oil scam, he said the shoe was actually on the other foot.
"I am very distressed because I have never said a word against them. There was no need to and I don't know what the provocation was. At this stage of my life, I am being told that I have done something terrible and let people down or been dishonest," he said.
Natwar took on the Congress President directly after she had charged him of betraying her trust and dissapointing her. His words also ensured that Natwar, who has already been suspended from the Congress party for receiving kickbacks in the Iraq oil-for-food scam, might just be out of the party soon.
On his part, Natwar remains defensive. "I have a self-esteem. If I had done something wrong, I wouldn't have been able to face myself," he said.
The Pathak Panel set up to enquire into the Volcker scam had held Natwar and his son Jagat Singh guilty of misusing their official position. Though any money trail could not be associated with them, the damage had been done.
Today, Natwar doesn't know whom to look up to. Earlier he had charged the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram of conspiring against him.
As for the party, it simply steered clear of him. "What Mr Natwar Singh has said is neither surprising nor new, he has spoken in a similar tone earlier. He is a free man," Congress spokesman Abihshek Manu Singhvi said.
So far, Natwar has claimed that he has many takers outside the Congress party as well. But with a duel now brewing between him and the Congress President directly, he may well have to wait for sometime before planning any future moves.
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