New Delhi, Feb 21 (UNI) The Congress today said it was unfortunate that former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh was trying to harm the party which had given him everything and was compromising his ideology by securing a place in the BJP.

Reacting to the report that Mr Singh had sent a letter of resignation from the primary membership of the party, AICC General Secretary Veerappa Moily said he had left the party "very disgracefully." Asked if he would get automatically disqualified from his membership in the Rajya Sabha in the light of his resignation from the party, he said the resignation letter had not so far reached Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

There were reports that Mr Singh had sent a one-line resignation letter to Ms Gandhi, snapping his decades old relationship with the Gandhi-Nehru family, at a time when he had six more weeks to go for the expiry of his current six-year term in the Upper House.

Mr Moily said Mr Singh had been speaking about secularism all these years. However, he had suddenly compromised his ideologies by joining the ranks of the BJP.

"He left the Congress Party only after securing his place in the BJP." In this context, he said the party should have an internal mechanism to identify suspects like Mr Singh and throw them out.

UNi SH MS HS1948