Sonia's dash to defuse Natwar bomb: Congress chief and daughter Priyanka visit former minister in bid to block tell-all book



The Natwar bomb is yet to be dropped, but Congress president Sonia Gandhi has already popped in to see the former external affairs minister.



Sonia, accompanied by her daughter Priyanka, was with Singh at his Jor Bagh residence for almost an hour a few days ago.



Sonia and Natwar haven't had a meaningful interaction since 2005, and certainly had a lot to talk about during their 50-minute meeting.



Potential bombshells: Former foreign minister Natwar Singh was an insider, close to the Gandhi family

The two have run into each other at a function or two, and in Central Hall of Parliament, but haven't exchanged any words.

If there was one compelling reason for the Sonia-Priyanka visit, it remains a mystery, because the event has not been made public.

It could have been a patch-up bid, now that the party is disarray and possibly looking to the wisdom of its past luminaries.

Mail Today sources say, however, that the conversation revolved around books, and one in particular. That book is called One Life is Not Enough, and it is written by Natwar Singh himself.



Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are believed to have asked Natwar Singh not to publish his forthcoming book

The book is to be released on August 7 by former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, and there's precious little time left if Sonia wants to avoid more - and deeper - embarrassment of the Baru kind.



Sources say that's what the unusual calling-on was for - a pre-emptive spiking of the Natwar Singh tale.



Priyanka is also believed to have requested Singh not to let the book be published.

The former external affairs minister - who joined the Congress way back in 1984 and was ignominiously forced out of the government first and the party later - has written a tell-all autobiography covering his years with Indira Gandhi as a senior Indian Foreign Service officer, and later as a Congressman with Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and Manmohan Singh.



A tell-all book

Singh's book is already being called the N-Bomb, because it is expected to reveal even more about the inner workings of the Congress and its first family than Sanjaya Baru's Accidental Prime Minister: Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh, which has left the Grand Old Party outraged and the author "amused".



Singh was considered a confidant of the party's First Family till his downfall, and has seen the workings of the government at pointblank range through his many years in politics.

"No comment" was Singh's terse reply when asked by Mail Today about the meeting.



He was a little more forthcoming about the moment of his resignation from the Congress.

"I was asked to resign. I went (to Sonia Gandhi) with my resignation. She kept it," Singh said.

Natwar Singh, chosen as foreign minister by Manmohan Singh in 2001, was removed from the position in December 2005 in the wake of the controversy over his alleged involvement in the Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal.



The Independent Inquiry Committee under Paul Volcker had in October 2005 reported that Singh and his son Jagat were non-contractual beneficiaries of the Oil for Food programme.



Along with Jagat's childhood friend Andaleeb Sehgal, the three were alleged to be associated with a company that was an intermediary for illegal sales of oil to a Swiss firm.



The Swiss firm, it was alleged, paid kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime as well as to Singh and the Congress party.



Singh was alleged to have lobbied against US policy on Iraq in return.

In 2008, Natwar Singh had had enough and resigned from the Congress. The Justice R.S. Pathak Inquiry Authority that was set up to investigate the allegations in 2006 indicted Singh and his son Jagat for "misusing their positions" to influence oil contracts, but also said that neither had derived any financial or personal gain in the entire business.

"There is no material to show that Shri Natwar Singh made any financial or personal gains from the contracts," the report of the Pathak authority said.

"The report of Justice Pathak says that my son and I have derived no financial benefit. That is the crux of the matter," Singh had said then, questioning how the Congress party which also figured in the allegations had been given a clean chit.



The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also been set on Singh's tail, and the cases they instituted against the former minister and his son haven't been taken back yet.

