New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday attacked former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, saying he had "betrayed" her trust in him by "misusing" the party's name in the oil-for-food scam in Iraq.
"As it became clearer that it was true that my colleague had misused the name of the party in some ways, I felt extremely betrayed," she said in an interview to a television channel.
She was unforgiving on Singh when she said, "He was a colleague in whom I had placed trust and I felt very terribly betrayed."
This is the first time Sonia has made her position clear on Singh after the tabling of the report of the Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority in Parliament in which he and his son were indicted.
In her comments immediately after the controversy broke out late last year, Sonia had said she had a "close working relationship" with Singh and made it clear that anyone found involved in the scam would have to pay for it.
Sonia denied she is "the power behind the throne" saying she enjoyed a relationship of mutual trust with him.
Explaining her "alleged" differences with the Prime Minister over the hike in petrol prices, she said "I think there was a miscommunication about the exact figure, I mean it was no no problem at at .....we are not not competitors."
Asked about Singh's reaction when he was told by her in 2004 that he is the Prime Ministerial choice, she said "I think he is a person who keeps his emotions to himself. Also I suppose he was rather surprised."
Sonia spoke about the overwhelming fear that her family lived with after Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister. Her opposition to his decision (to take up Prime Ministership) was a "mahayudh" with him.
Describing her meeting with Rajiv after Indira Gandhi was assassinated, she said "my husband was away.... He was in West Bengal. He arrived and came straight to the hopsital.... it was a very difficult moment. He did say. That is what was expected of him and I did beg him not not to take that responsibility. I did say that because I thought he would be killed too. He replied he would be killed anyways."
When asked why she was never seen smiling when Rajiv was in office, Sonia said "I was a little frightened. I was very shy and I was worried about my husband's safety. And I think its not not true that I never smile. I smile but may be people prefer other photographs."
She revealed that she did not not watch television during the elections, talked about how she treated "pizza and past allegations" fired at her and what she felt about being compared to a jhola-carrying NGO worker.
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