Senior Congress leader Jayanthi Natarajan has lobbed a ‘green’ letter bomb at General Secretary Rahul Gandhi for her ‘humiliation’ as well as for being ejected out of the environment ministry at his insistence during the erstwhile Manmohan Singh-led UPA II government in which she was the Union environment minister – her ‘green’ endeavours had caused many UPA projects to come to a grinding halt as the ministry refused to grant clearances. The letter itself is dated November 5, 2014.
Jayanthi Natarajan subsequently resigned from the Congress party.
While it was widely expected that Jayanthi Natarajan would announce that she would join the BJP, she demurred in the press conference she called later in the afternoon by saying, “I have no plans to join any other political party after such bitter experiences.”
She added she was ordered, after party obtained her resignation as minister, to target Narendra Modi.
Reacting to the claims the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looked to highlight the wrongdoings by the UPA government during its tenure.
After being told of BJP reaction by the media, Natarajan said, “I welcome any probe into the environmental clearances given during my tenure; it will give me an opportunity to explain my position.”
Jayanthi Natarajan was told to quit in December 2013, which was just months ahead of the looming general elections. The official reason for the move was that she would focus on party work ahead of polls.
Jayanthi Natarajan sent the letter to Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.
Among other issues, she has accused Rahul Gandhi of meddling in the working of the environment ministry and for ruining her career as well as causing the legacy of her family, which she says ‘served the nation with immense distinction’, to be put under threat of being tarnished – her great-grandfather was a member of the Constituent Assembly and many in her kin were freedom fighters. As Jayanthi said, ‘Congress blood flows in her veins’.
After Jayanthi Natarajan’s sensational revelations targetting Rahul Gandhi, Congress today rallied behind him, dismissing as ‘completely baseless’ the allegations of his interference in the work of Environment Ministry and accused her of having ‘ulterior motives’.
While there is much frustration in the Congress party cadre at all levels after the loss in the general elections, Jayanthi Natarajan is the first one to highlight the rot that was within the UPA government.
Jayanthi Natarajan said that though PM Manmohan Singh had praised her for her work after accepting her resignation, she was till date, yet to be given the reason party forced her to quit.
She said, to her shock and dismay, she came to know the very next day about Rahul Gandhi’s campaign against her in the media where stories were planted ‘that my resignation was NOT for party work’.
She then alleges, “The day after I resigned, Shri Rahul Gandhi addressed a FICCI meeting of industrialists, where he made uncomplimentary references to delays in environmental clearances, and the adverse effects upon the economy, and assured the corporate world, that the party and government would henceforth ensure that there would be no delays, and bottlenecks for industry. It was then that some in the media questioned me if I had been asked to resign immediately, to enable Shri Rahul Gandhi to address FICCI and the corporate world with the news of my resignation in the background.”
“I am still unable to understand what I have done wrong, or what crime I have committed to have been treated like this in the party I have faithfully served so long. I want to categorically state that I have always been a loyal, sincere dedicated party worker, implicitly obeying the orders of my leaders,” she wrote.
She goes on to target Rahul Gandhi accusing him of shifting his stance from pro-environment to one that was totally ‘corporate-friendly’. She said Gandhi sent her ‘requests’ and that she dutifully obeyed and implemented them both in letter and spirit.
She said that Rahul Gandhi’s office carried out a sustained campaign of humiliation against her by planting stories that eventually led to her exit. She says the entire ‘vicious’ campaign was based on falsehoods.
“It still baffles me, why I was humiliated so brutally,” she added.
Reacting to the news, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reacted first and looked to ramp up the fallout from the sensational revelations by saying, “Environment ministry should look into clearances granted during UPA regime”.
Arun Jaitley said the previous UPA government was a practitioner of “sadistic” economy and “crony capitalism” after the attack by Jayanthi Natarajan.
Suitably prompted by FM, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said, “Revelations made by Jayanthi Natarajan matter of great concern, will review those specific files.”
Among the projects that she stopped on party’s instructions involved Vedanta, Nayamgiri, Nirma, Adani (specific input came from Rahul Gandhi’s office in this case) and many others too.
The revelations have been made by a ‘The Hindu’ report.
During her subsequent press conference in the afternoon, she says that after obtaining her resignation, Congress asked her to carry out a sustained campaign against Narendra Modi targetting him over the ‘Snoopgate’ revelations, in which he was accused of allegedly ordering the state security services to spy on a young woman.
Also read: CobraPost, Gulail stings target Narendra Modi over Snoopgate, ‘Narendra Modi had anti-women attitude’
“As a minister in UPA-II, I did not want to attack Narendra Modi on Snoopgate issue but the party at the highest level wanted me to do so,” said Natarajan.
“I have done no wrong. I am willing to be hanged or go to jail if any concrete proof of my wrongdoing is established,” Natarajan added.
Reacting to the sensational news, in a statement here, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “As Jayanthi Natarajan’s immediate predecessor for slightly over 25 months, I can say with all honesty that at no point of time did Rahul Gandhi ever tell me, directly or indirectly, what to do or what not to do in the discharge of my ministerial responsibilities.”
Congress party also fielded M Veerappa Moily, who succeeded Jayanthi Natarajan in the Environemnt Ministry who rubbished all allegations and said Rahul Gandhi had never interfered in the functioning of the ministry.
Commenting on the controversy regarding Rahul Gandhi’s intervention relating to rejection of green clearance to Vedanta’s mining project, former party MP Pradeep Majhi today said this speaks of the Congress vice-president’s commitment towards the ‘Dangaria Kondh’ tribes in Niyamgiri hills.
“Rahulji had already taken a stand to protect the interests of the tribals under any circumstances. As tribals worship Niyamgiri hills as god and source their livelihood from it, Rahulji did what could be done. There is nothing wrong in it,” Majhi, a close associate of Gandhi, said
over phone.
Alleging that Jayanthi Natarajan was being “used” by BJP ahead of assembly elections in Delhi, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) today alleged it was part of a conspiracy by the saffron party.
“Natarajan’s statement months after being dropped from the ministry is part of a conspiracy hatched by BJP. The (Nerendra) Modi team used Natarajan after realising that Kiran Bedi could not ensure victory of the party in Delhi elections,” OPCC President Prasad Harichandan told reporters here.
BJP also hit out at Rahul saying he was the “supervisor” of the factory that “manufactured policy paralysis” due to which the country’s economy was hurt. It also accused the opposition party of practicing a policy of “sadistic” economy by “teaching a lesson” to some and favouring some and demanded that it come out clean on the issue.
Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman said, “That the government’s decisions were very selectively manipulated for the party’s interests and the party was interfering in every decision the government was taking have all now been established.”