For Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, it was Natwar Singh and the Congress party that mattered and had it not been for this, there was little chance that Andaleeb Sehgal would have got his foot into the illegal oil door. In fact, Iraqi officials, the Indian Ambassador and once even the Swiss oil firm refer to the deal as a “political” allocation.

This is, in essence, the conclusion of the Justice R S Pathak Inquiry Authority which gives the Congress party a clean chit but firmly establishes that Natwar used his position to make this look like a Congress affair for the Saddam regime.

Pathak couldn’t have been clearer: ‘‘In the eyes of Iraqi authorities, the intended beneficiary of the contract was Natwar Singh of the Indian Congress Party. Had Natwar not met the Iraqi Oil Minister on January 22, 2001, when he visited Baghdad, there would have been practically no possibility of Hamdaan exports obtaining the contract.’’

Consider these, from the report tabled in Parliament today:

• “Name of Purchasing Company: Swiss (Masefield AG) for Natwar Singh, Member of Indian Congress Party’’ (page 48). This was a note in Arabic written by Saddam Z Hassan, Executive Director General of Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) for approval by Iraq Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rasheed. The approval led to 2 million barrels oil being lifted by Masefield AG at 30 cents surcharge (25 cents to SOMO, 5 cents to Andaleeb and Aditya Khanna).

• On August 21, 2001, while approving the second contract, SOMO prepared a similar note that said ‘‘for the benefit of the Indian Congress Party’’ (page 67) leading to the execution of a contract to lift 1 million barrels.

... contd.