The Volcker Mystery

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has been extremely shrewd in retaining Natwar Singh in the cabinet of ministers as a minister without a portfolio, in spite of the latter having to step down as the External Affairs Minister following the hue and cry regarding his involvement in the oil-for-food scam in Iraq, as revealed by the Volcker Committee report. This move means that the ruling coalition is not blindly supporting a member of its family, rather it is keeping its options open to side with the truth as and when it emerges, if at all it does emerge. The credibility of the Volcker Committee report is on shaky grounds as Paul Volcker, the chairman of the investing committee has admitted that he does not know that Natawar Singh happened to be the External Affairs Minister of India. Perhaps, this bit of information was of no use in preparing the report, but still the spearhead of a high-level committee should be knowing the current portfolio of a person against whom he is leveling a charge based on outcomes of investigations.