Wednesday, November 16 2005 20:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Congress today (Nov 16, 2005) sidestepped questions whether former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh should quit the union cabinet in the wake of party chief Sonia Gandhi's remarks yesterday (Nov 15, 2005)on the Volcker report on the Iraqi oil-for-food scam.

"Whatever Gandhi has said is crystal clear. She is hurt and extremely angry that someone used the name of the party to make money and wants to get to the bottom of the truth to punish the guilty", All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Ambika Soni told reporters.

Party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan, speaking at the AICC briefing, spoke in a similar vein when asked whether the former External Affairs Minister, who has been made minister without portfolio, should take 'ample hints' from Gandhi's statement on the issue. Natarajan also avoided a direct reply to a query as to how Singh was in the Union Cabinet when Gandhi had expressed anger on the Volcker issue.

"It is the prerogative of the Prime Minister who should remain in the Cabinet" was her refrain to such questions.

The comments from the AICC came shortly after Singh said at a seminar here that stripping him of the External Affairs Ministry portfolio was 'disagreeable' but agreed with Gandhi that Government should get to the bottom of allegations made in the Volcker Committee report.

"It (relieving of his portfolio) is disagreeable. There is no substance in the allegations" that he and the Congress party were beneficiaries in the pay offs made during the Saddam Hussein regime in 2001, he said at the HT Leadership Summit.