Stung by his privilege motion against the Prime Minister and his open cosying up to party rivals, the Congress tonight suspended former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh from its primary membership and asked him to show cause within two weeks why he should not be expelled for misusing his position to help those close to him procure oil contracts from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2001.

This comes a day after Justice R S Pathak’s indictment that had it not been for Natwar and his lobbying with the Saddam regime, his son’s friend and his associates wouldn’t have got the oil contracts and the illegal surcharges.

Natwar Singh, who was at a dinner meeting with Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh when his suspension was announced, hit back almost immediately, picking on Manmohan Singh by describing him as “the first Prime Minister to occupy the chair after not winning a Lok Sabha election, not even a municipal election”.

Reacting sharply to Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s remark that he had brought “disrepute” to the Congress, Natwar said there were three persons in Manmohan Singh’s Council of Ministers who are accused in cases of murder and rape. “Are they not bringing disrepute to the government? My record is impeccable,” he said.

Earlier, the Congress Disciplinary Action Committee met and decided around midnight to suspend the 75-year-old diplomat-turned-politician from the party.

Announcing the decision, DAC chief A K Antony and Pranab Mukherjee told reporters that a show-cause notice was being issued to Singh, asking him why he should not be expelled from Congress. He would be given two weeks to reply.

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