To a question, Mukherjee said suspension was not the final punishment and if Natwar’s explanation was satisfactory, then there would be no cause for further action. Mukherjee said action was taken against Natwar because “as leader of the Congress delegation to Iraq in 2001, he misused his official position by furthering commercial interests of his son Jagat Singh’ cousin Andaleeb Sehgal and his company Hamdaan Exports. Natwar Singh expanded the Congress delegation by including Jagat Singh and Andaleeb Sehgal without any authority from the Congress president and without her knowledge”.

Mukherjee said Natwar had “in recent weeks been indulging in and carrying on propaganda against the party and has brought disrepute to it”. “On these counts, he has been suspended from the primary membership of the party. A show-cause notice will be issued to him shortly asking him why he should not be expelled from the party,” he said.

Today’s action by the Congress virtually severs two decades of Natwar’s association with the Congress which he joined in 1984 to contest Lok Sabha elections successfully after quitting the foreign service.

Natwar had risen to become secretary in the External Affairs Ministry. He became a Minister of State in the Rajiv Gandhi government and then became External Affairs Minister in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet.‘Loyalist’ slams PM, takes a dig at Sonia

• Manmohan Singh is the only prime minister in the world not to have won even a municipality election. The first ten prime ministers of this country had won Lok Sabha elections. His name should go to the Guinness book of records

... contd.