Despite Natwar Singh's outbursts against Sonia Gandhi, the Congress on Monday said it did not want to make him a martyr by summary expulsion as the former external affairs minister's aggression showed his "sense of guilt" in connection with the Iraqi oil-for-food scam.
"Natwar Singh's uncontrolled aggression confirms his sense of guilt... and that he has lost his balance," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters at the All India Congress Committee briefing.
To a volley of questions on action against Natwar Singh, who has targeted the Congress president and even attacked her foreign origin, he said Congress was "not going to be dictated" on the timing, nature and content of the action against the suspended leader.
Singhvi maintained that Natwar Singh's actions showed his "frustration and desperation following incriminating findings of the high level inquiry".
Party sources said the leadership would take a holistic view in the matter and coolly decide the issue and was not in anyway wanting to make Natwar Singh a martyr though he was deliberately attacking the leadership to provoke it to take action.
Natwar's son Jagat Singh, also indicted in the inquiry, has already been expelled by the Rajasthan Congress Committee.
Former party spokesman Rajeev Shukla attacked Natwar Singh for his diatribe against Sonia and reminded him that without the late Rajiv Gandhi's backing he would have just remained another bureaucrat.
Besides, Shukla said Natwar Singh's attack on Sonia despite enjoying the best of positions in the party and the government because of her, showed his culture.
