Pathak report to be tabled on Monday

New Delhi: A day after Parliament was rocked over the leakage of the findings of the Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority report, Government announced that it will be tabled in Parliament on Monday.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi announced that the Action Taken Report (ATR) will also be tabled. "This is for the first time that an Action Taken Report will be presented in 72 hours," he added.

The announcement by Dasmunsi came on the sidelines of a function of All India Management Association.

While the report had indicted former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and his son Jagat for misusing their position to help people close to them for getting oil contracts from the Saddam Hussein regime, the Authority had exonerated the Congress Party, which was named the non-contractual beneficiaries of the oil-for-food scam.

Soon after Justice Pathak presented the report to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on August 3, he sent it to the Finance Ministry for further action.

The leakage of the report triggered an uproar by the Opposition and upset Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Government's decision to expedite the ATR was aimed at taking the wind out of opposition sails which had started targeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

The announcement came close on the heels of the Congress Core Group meeting on Friday night, attended among others by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Gandhi.

The action also came in the backdrop of opposition moves to bring a privilege in Parliament against the Congress-led coalition over the leakage.

While Natwar Singh has maintained that he and his Congress Party were inseparable, he has also parried questions on whether he would join the Samajwadi Party.

Asked about reports about Singh meeting SP leader Amar Singh and JD-U leader Digvijay Singh, Dasmunsi made light of the development saying "there is no Constitutional restriction on two Singhs meeting one Singh".

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal dismissed suggestions that there would be any adverse impact on the Congress if Natwar Singh resigned from the party.

"Even if anyone goes out of the party, there is no affect on the health of the party. In the last 60 years, so many have come and gone and Congress remained unaffected by any threats," he said talking to reporters at Kanpur.

Significantly, Natwar Singh has also remarked, "I have a lot of information which I will make public at an appropriate time."