Former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan Quits Congress Friday Jan 30,2015

The beleaguered Congress imploded on Friday Jan 30,2015 when long-time loyalist Jayanthi Natarajan walked out of the party, leaving vice-president Rahul Gandhi to fend off charges of promoting crony capitalism in the name of protecting the environment

 

Jayanthi Natarajan addressed a press conference in Chennai over the issue and announced her resignation from the Congress. 

In one of the most damning accounts of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul during the UPA rule, Jayanthi Natarajan’s “letter bomb” exposed the events that led to her sacking as the environment minister in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet in 2013.

Jayanthi Natarajan mentioned four specific big ticket investment cases — Vedanta, Adani, GVK,Lavasa and Nirma cases and Western Ghats row — that were stalled during her tenure at the direct intervention of Rahul Gandhi.

Jayanthi Natarajan claimed that despite her following the party’s policies of protecting the rights of tribals and the environment, stories were planted by Rahul Gandhi’s office against her claiming that she was acting as a bottleneck.

“I was never a bottleneck, nor was I ever responsible for unwarranted delays in major projects. And I can prove this at any time. I was shattered by the attack upon me, and bewildered,” wrote Jayanthi in a letter to Sonia Gandhi in November 2014. 

The “leaked” letter stirred a huge political controversy with the NDA government latching on to her allegations highlighting irregularities in the environment ministry whose file pile-up was made an election issue by Narendra Modi.

Jayanthi questioned her removal, saying she was only following the party line as instructed by party chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who had forwarded several messages to her on the concerns expressed by various NGOs over environmental clearances.

“During my tenure as minister, it was the clear and specific policy of the party to take all steps to protect the environment, and carry forward the legacy of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, to preserve the environment, and keep a balance between environment and industry,” Jayanthi said in the letter. 

“I received specific requests [which used to be directives for us] from Rahul Gandhi and his office forwarding environmental concerns in some important areas and I took care to honour those ‘requests’,” she said.

“Ï have always been loyal to the Gandhi family.”

Jayanthi Natarajan noted that the day after she resigned as environment minister, Rahul Gandhi addressed a FICCI meeting of industrialists, where he made references to delays in environmental clearances, and the adverse effects upon the economy while assuring the corporates of no future delays. 

She alleged that in following the party line to protect tribals, environment and forests, she faced the anger of other cabinet colleagues who said her move was impacting industrial growth. 

“I asked him (Rahul Gandhi) what wrongdoing I had committed to warrant this treatment. I said that I should have been asked for an explanation,” she said.