The Congress party is in no hurry to expel suspended leader Natwar Singh, senior party sources indicated today even as the former external affairs minister continued with his tirade against the party and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “He will remain suspended, so that our whip applies to him. For all practical purposes, he is no longer part in the party,” a senior Congress functionary said.

Natwar Singh is a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan and his term will end only in 2008. If the party decides to expel him, he will gain the status of an independent MP.

Natwar Singh had replied on August 22 to a show-cause notice issued to him on August 9. Singh’s reply was defiant, wherein he even challenged the credentials of the disciplinary committee of the party. Natwar said only Sonia Gandhi could be fair to him and sought his case to be referred to her. A week after the reply, no date has been fixed for meeting the DAC. Chairman A K Antony is away and will be returning only late next week. After his suspension Natwar was also removed as editorial board chairman of the party organ Sandesh.

Meanwhile, Natwar has targeted the PM yet again, this time in a newspaper article. Arguing that a Jat-Muslim social combination is emerging in Northern India, Singh said: “There is widespread anger against the US in the country. Worse still, the impression is gathering momentum that the PM and some of his colleagues and advisers are not standing up to the overbearing conduct of the US. However, the PM’s speech in the Rajya Sabha debate on the Indo-US nuclear deal will have caused much discomfort in Washington. The PM could not stand up to the pressure put on him by the Left parties and others, who have all but ensured that the nuclear deal is beginning to resemble a dying duck.”

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