K Natwar Singh is no more the external affairs minister of India. Despite having announced that he would not quit as he had done nothing wrong, the cabinet stripped Natwar of his post and made him a Minister without a portfolio.
The United Progressive Alliance government, under pressure by the scathing attacks by the oppostion, announced the setting up of two separate probe commisions to go into the allegations levelled by the Volcker report of the UN, which termed Natwar and the congress party as benficiaries in the Iraqi oil-for-food scam.
One probe will be led by former diplomat Virendra Dayal -- a former under-secretary general in the United Nations, who worked with Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, former general secretary of the United Nations -- and the other headed by Justice R S Pathak, former chief justice of India who had also served as a judge on the International Court of Justice.
The Justice Pathak enquiry authority, which has been give judicial powers under the Commissions of Enquiry Act, will submit its report within a period of six months unless extended by the government.
Image: Natwar Singh.
Photograph: Sondeep Shankar/Saab Pictures
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