NEW DELHI, 10 August 2006 — India’s ruling Congress party has suspended former Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh over his alleged involvement in Iraq’s oil-for-food scandal and was preparing to expel the one-time official, party officials said yesterday.

Natwar was suspended for bringing “disrepute” to the Congress, Pranab Mukherjee, a Congress leader and also India’s defense minister, told reporters.

The CNN-IBN news channel reported that party members were preparing to kick Natwar out of the party.

Natwar was believed to be the first senior official in the world forced out because of the oil-for-food-scandal. He resigned in November after being named in a report by US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who led an investigation into corruption in the program meant to alleviate suffering in Iraq because of UN sanctions imposed following Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Hours after the suspension from the Congress, Natwar yesterday launched a diatribe against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his former colleagues while seeking to become a rallying point for critics of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Yesterday Natwar was in a defiant mood. Dismissing the allegations against him, Natwar said he was ready for a “battle.” “I’m a man of strong nerves. I won’t take things lying down,” he was quoted as saying by the PTI news agency.

As events unfolded early yesterday, Manmohan had to postpone his visit to flood-hit areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat as his stay in the capital became crucial for the party with Natwar promising to rock Parliament this week. Saying he was “hurt” and “bitter” over his suspension from a party he has served for over two decades, Natwar maintained he was innocent and charged two of his former Cabinet colleagues, whom he did not name, with conspiracy to frame him in the Iraqi oil-for-food corruption scandal that has embroiled politicians and officials in several countries.

“I have served the Congress for 22 years, before that 31 years (I was) in the foreign service. I have been let down. I am deeply disappointed. I am bitter, I”m hurt the party has decided to do this to me,” Natwar said.

Refusing to comment on the role played by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Natwar said: “I will not say single word against Sonia Gandhi.”

However, about Manmohan, Natwar did not mince words. “It gives me no pleasure to say that he is a weak prime minister. He is unable to stand,” Natwar said, adding: “I have known him for 40 years. He is indecisive. He knows nothing about foreign policy. I helped him.”

Natwar also had several meetings with the same political leaders yesterday who had demanded his resignation as foreign minister last year for his alleged involvement in the Iraq oil deal.

He found common cause with Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and other newfound supporters like former Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal United leader Digvijay Singh, also a former minister of state for foreign affairs.

This group of MPs, referred to as “nuclear club”, was trying to build a loose coalition that included the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the AIADMK and elements of the Left parties that support the Manmohan government to embarrass the latter by pushing for a Parliament resolution against the nuclear deal with the US.

“Natwar Singh was dropped from the Cabinet and later suspended from the party not because of the Pathak inquiry report,” said Sinha, referring to the report of the Justice R.S. Pathak Inquiry Authority tabled in Parliament Monday.

“This was the official reason. But the real reason was something else: His critical views on the India-US civil nuclear deal could have been a major consideration in dropping him from the Cabinet,” Sinha said.

Sources close to Natwar said the former foreign minister was preparing to fire yet another salvo at Manmohan in his reply to the show cause notice and suspension order.

Congress strategists were debating as to how to stop Natwar Singh from speaking in parliament Thursday if the issue did figure in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house.