NEW DELHI: In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded the immediate dismissal of Natwar Singh as External Affairs Minister, saying his continuation would be a "national embarrassment."

The two-and-a-half page letter, signed by general secretary Arun Jaitley, assailed the government for rubbishing the findings of the United Nations-appointed Volcker Committee on the oil-for-food scandal that erupted when Iraq was under economic sanctions. "A person indicted by a U.N. report for financial impropriety cannot uphold India on the world stage. His credentials will always be suspect."

"Confiscate passports"

Releasing copies of the letter to the press here, vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the party demanded criminal proceedings against those indicted in the report, confiscation of their passports and dismissal of Mr. Singh.

The government should make every attempt to get to the truth by asking for detailed evidence from the authorities concerned.

The letter pointed out the "coincidence" of the exact sum of $7,48,540 collected by Masefield AG (the firm which bought the oil contract) as "illegal surcharge" being deposited by Andleeb Sehgal and his company, Hamdan Exports, into accounts in the Jordanian National Bank. There was the further coincidence of Hamdan Exports and Mr. Sehgal doing the job when the specified "non-contractual beneficiary" was Mr. Natwar Singh and the Congress. Then there was the "coincidence" of the families of Jagat Singh (Mr. Natwar Singh's son) and Mr. Sehgal being on "intimate terms" as well as the "coincidence" of Mr. Jagat Singh and Mr. Sehgal travelling to Jordan around the time the payments were made into the bank accounts.

Mr. Jaitley said there was "compelling evidence" that Mr. Natwar Singh "allowed himself to be used as a lobbyist for Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq."

Mr. Naqvi said the BJP would raise the issue both in and out of Parliament.

On Friday, the general secretaries would meet president L.K. Advani to draw up a strategy on how best to keep the focus on the scandal.

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