Natwar bad, Congress good?

BY darius| IN Opinion | 07/08/2006

You don`t say!

Darius Nakhoonwala

How I love it when the slips of politically aligned newspapers start to show. After the Pathak Commission`s report on the Natwar Singh affair became public, simply yards are in plain view.

The Hindu toed the party line and said "Mr Natwar Singh and his son, Jagat Singh, misused their position in the Congress party to secure oil contracts for their friends and associates". That out of the way, it prescribed the punishment. "the report is a clear political and moral indictment that would make it impossible right now for Mr Natwar Singh to return to the office from which he stepped down... "

But what did it have to say about the Congress party which also appears to have had some barrels allotted to it? "The Authority has exonerated the Congress party of any involvement in the deals as also a functionary of that party, Aniel Matherani." It accepted this at face value and did not, as it does when other parties are concerned - save of course the Left - question this finding. Instead, it had this hilarious sentence. "The Congress party cannot be seen as setting the bar so low and brazenly ignoring the finding by a respected former Chief Justice of India."

Like the Hindu, the Deccan Herald also asked Mr Singh to go away. "He may entertain ideas of defending himself by dragging his party into the picture. The veteran politician that he is, Mr Singh should see the writing on the wall. It is a bitter experience to lose everything in politics. But Mr Singh appears to have no other option." Poor chap. No wonder he has brought a privilege motion against the Prime Minister, no less, the first time ever anywhere this has been done.

As was to be expected, the Pioneer came charging in from the other side and, thanks to the rush of blood, it even invented a new word -- scapegoating.  "The scapegoating", it said,  "of Natwar Singh shows the lengths to which the Government`s dirty tricks department can go to save the skin of the Congress Party and its reigning dynasty… the leak came at the end of a stormy day in Parliament on the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal… brought the Left parties and the BJP together for the first time since the UPA came to power.. the Government sensed danger and decided to launch a diversionary flare…"

It grumbled on. "There are far too many unanswered questions that lurk within the Pathak Committee`s findings. The convenient exoneration of the Congress Party is the first such travesty… it defies logic as to how a judicial luminary of Mr RS Pathak`s stature could merrily ignore the party`s connections with the Saddam regime and give it a clean chit…"

And on. "The contrast between the way an Italian absconder was permitted to encash (his) Bofors pay-offs last year while Mr Natwar Singh is being mercilessly hanged… the former Minister would be well advised to don the role of an approver and make a clean breast of things."

The Indian Express clearly didn`t think things over fully. "While it may be too early to give the Justice R.S. Pathak inquiry report an unqualified thumbs up, we need to commend the former chief justice for having concluded his work in good time — with just one extension" and thus missed the point altogether, which it does quite often these days.

The Telegraph and the Hindustan Times, as of Monday, did not comment.

Darius.Nakhoonwala@gmail.com