If Singh should sing...

Arjun Singh may have helped absolve former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of responsibility in Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson’s escape from India after the gas leak in the Bhopal factory, but his intervention in the Rajya Sabha debate on the issue was preceded by considerable anxiety for the Congress. When Singh approached them for permission to speak, the party’s floor managers carefully weighed their options. Singh had, after all, been privy to a lot of back-channel communications as Madhya Pradesh chief minister at the time. The decision to allow him his day in the Rajya Sabha was, it is learnt, prompted by the fear that he was quite capable of calling a press conference to spill the beans if he was denied a chance in Parliament.