Former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, who was suspended from the Congress in the wake of the oil-for-food scam, on Sunday challenged the Congress leadership to expel him from the party.
"I am challenging the Congress Disciplinary Committee Chairman and Union Defence Minister AK Antony to expel me from the Congress. Let us see how he reacts," Singh told a press meet in Thiruvananthpuram.
Holding that Antony had no moral right to expel him from the party, Singh said that the Defence Minister himself was expelled for six years for abusing the Congress and its leadership in the past.
Stating that there were concerted efforts to malign him in the oil-for-food scam, he said discussions on the Volcker Committee report had already taken place in Parliament and everybody had said there was nothing in the report.
Even after the Pathak committee report exonerated him, the "vendetta" and "harassment" against him continued, he said.
Asked whether he thought that a coterie in the Congress had worked against him, Singh said people in the Enforcement Directorate had told him that they were acting on orders from the "top".
{{/usCountry}}Asked whether he thought that a coterie in the Congress had worked against him, Singh said people in the Enforcement Directorate had told him that they were acting on orders from the "top".
{{/usCountry}}"The Enforcement Directorate said you are so well-known and we respect you. But we have our orders from the top and that is why we are doing it," Singh said.