The newspapers nowadays are filled with news mentioning the Oil-For-Food scandal and how Natvar Singh alone is being made a scapegoat as being the sole beneficiary of this scam. But what exactly is this Oil-For-Food scam?

The United Nations first conceived the Oil-For-Food programme as a means for providing humanitarian aid to the war stricken people of Iraq. But it was subverted by Saddam Hussein regime and modified to prop up the Iraqi Dicatator. He siphoned off allegedly 10 Billion $ in Oil Smuggling and systematic theivery by demanding illegal payoffs from Companies buying Iraqi Oil and all this kept happening right under the noses of UN bureaucrats. The gross mis-management and incompetencies on the part of UN officials and their possible complicity with the Iraqi Regime resulted in one of the biggest Scandals in the annals of UN history.

In April 2004, the General Secretary of UN, Kofi Annan announced the formation of an Independent High Level Inquiry Commission headed by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to investigate the scam. This committee came to be known as the Volcker Committee.

So now the question that comes to your mind is, where does Congress and Natvar Singh fit in this whole picture?
The Volcker Committee named Natwar Singh and Congress party as the beneficiaries of this scam. Natwar Singh got the Iraqis to sell them oil at well below the International price. This oil was then resold to a Swiss firm Masefield AG and the beneficiaries of this cheap oil made a handsome profit in this whole deal. But in those days the Congress was not in power and Natwar was out of office, so this whole deal was allegedly implemented by his Son Jagat Singh at his father's behest. But the R.S Pathak Inquiry Authority (Indian Version of the Volcker Committee) exonerated the Congress party of all the charges and indicted Natwar Singh alone.

So what do we gain from all this?? NOTHING. Few months of investigation, few more enquiry commissions and few Court Orders later, Natwar Singh will again be a free man. Free to do whatever he wishes to, free to contest and win elections and free, to again become the External Affairs Minster of this country. This is how it has going on for all this years and it ain't gonna cease anytime sooner!! After all, Yeh hai India, ....meri jaan!!!