Sonia vows to punish anyone found guilty by Pathak probe

NEW DELHI, Wednesday (The Hindu) Congress president Sonia Gandhi said that action would be taken against anyone found culpable by the R.S. Pathak Inquiry Authority. The Authority has been appointed by the Central Government to investigate the charges in the United Nations-appointed Volcker Committee Report on the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal.

Taking questions after addressing a conference organised by Hindustan Times, Ms. Gandhi said the findings of the Volcker Committee had both "hurt" her and made her "very angry."

She said if the documents were authentic, then some individuals had misused the name of the Congress. As soon as the inquiry report was given, the Government would take action against any individual found "not innocent," she promised. "We can no longer look the other way when such incidents take place."

To a question whether she was "protecting" the former External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wanted him to go, the Congress president said, "this is not accurate."

"I kept saying that if what has come out, if the documents are authentic, I shall certainly not protect them" she said. According to her, people already looked at political parties with cynicism - that all of them were the same and corrupt. It was "sad and bad" that people should have such a view of political parties.

Stressing that there was need to correct this impression, the Congress president said if immediate and credible action was taken after such incidents [Volcker Report], the people were bound to change their opinion.

It was necessary, she said, for the Congress to clear its name in the wake of the allegations made by the Volcker Committee. When the issue came up, she took the view that the Government must institute an inquiry.

She said she was "fully behind" the Government and its decision to set up the Pathak Authority. She hoped that it would get to the "bottom of the issue" and do it in the shortest possible time.

Asked about the impact on the Manmohan Singh Government of the differences between the Congress and the Left parties, she said there was not a single issue that could not be resolved through discussion.