"I was not only against the Indian vote against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency", says Natwar Singh, "I even now advise the government", he goes on, "to reverse its vote" at the next meeting of IAEA. Not just that, he would even like the national policy on Iraq to be reversed. "India's links with the Islamic world of Iraq date back to centuries", he says adding, "So, I am no apologist for Saddam". Also, had he the power, he would like, not just policies, but even history, the history of the break-up of the Soviet Union, reversed.

"The greatest tragedy of the world was the break-up of the Soviet Union", he says. But whether Russia or other member countries of the former Soviet Union today regret the fall of the Soviet Union is doubtful. India has recognised and has opened diplomatic relations with the broken units of the Soviet Union. Does Natwar mean that their emergence as independent nations is a tragedy?

And this man as the Foreign Minister wanted to deal with them for India. This is the real tragedy.

By his comments, at a great cost to the country, Natwar Singh has taken the battle for his survival to ideological domains. He is dynamiting Manmohan Singh's endeavours with George Bush by turning hysterical against the US. "It is Condoleeza Rice who came to see me; it happened for the first time", he gloats. Will she ever come to see him hereafter? Never.

May be Natwar's anger is justified in a way. Explicitly, the real beneficiary of whatever benefits that Saddam Hussein had conferred on the 'non-contractual beneficiaries' is the Congress party.

Paul Volcker has listed the Congress as the beneficiary in one entry and Natwar in another but strictly in his capacity as the member of the Congress party. Yet the Congress party's defence of Natwar has been muted.

Natwar himself says that Ambika Soni, Pranab Mukherjee and Jairam Ramesh are against him. Does it mean Natwar has pocketed the benefits and did not pass it on, and so the Congress is angry, or is the Congress ungrateful, that it got the benefit and is still letting down Natwar?

Whatever is the inside story, Natwar goes to Karat and Bardan, tells them, according to Intelligence sources, that Sonia gave him the letter to be delivered to Saddam. Then, how it gets leaked to the media? They also certify their new found ideological ally's case as strong. So Natwar has successfully turned the tables on Manmohan Singh and even on Sonia by spinning an ideological issue out of a corruption case and secured the support of the allies of the Congress for his battle. He is clear about his defences, never mind the cost to the nation.

He knows that the real fight is in India. But to fight that battle he needs a proxy rival in the US. Fortunately for Natwar, Paul Volcker is an American. So he could easily give an ideological spin to a complicated issue of corruption, international morality and national embarrassment. Imagine Volcker had been a Russian or Chinese. He could not have gone to the Left for support.

Again had Volcker been a Muslim, Natwar's efforts to communalise the corruption issue would have been a non-starter. He could never had said as he did, "We have lived with Islam for a thousand years while you (meaning George Bush) have discovered it only on 9/11". What has this to do with the Volcker's charge that Natwar and Congress got oil vouchers from Iraq? Does Natwar say that being a thousand year friend of Iraq India is entitled to oil vouchers from them? The US is experiencing Indian secularism at its doors now.

Yet the person who is the president of the beneficiary Congress party, Madam Sonia, is totally silent? Now it has been almost confirmed by Ambika Soni that Sonia gave a letter for Saddam through Natwar when he went to Baghdad with his son, a suspect in the oil voucher scam.

But, the moment it became known that Sonia had couriered her letter to Saddam through Natwar, the Congress party climbed down from 'legal action on Volcker' to 'writing a polite letter' to the UN. The man most embarrassed by all this is the Prime Minister himself. Though he is the declared Prime Minister, he has half a dozen undeclared prime ministers to handle. Now Natwar has joined the ranks of Laloo, Ramvilas, Pawar, Maran et al as the de facto Prime Minister (of External Affairs).

But even more embarrassed, even humiliated than Manmohan Singh is the state and the people of India with their Foreign Minister turning a joker and their ruling party standing charged for taking commission on sale of illicit oil coupons of Iraq.