 "Jayanthi Natarajan quits Congress")
Congress party veteran Jayanthi Natarajan, Union minister in the previous United Progressive Alliance government and also a party spokesperson till recently, has quit the party.
She held a press conference in Chennai on Friday morning, saying she was ending her family’s four-generation association with the Congress.
The party hit back, saying “serious allegations” of corruption against her had led to her removal from the earlier government.
This is another high-profile exit in Tamil Nadu after ex-Union minister G K Vasan declared he was walking out, lambasted the Congress’ ‘high command culture’ and formed his own party.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in Delhi: “There were serious allegations against her and her pretended ignorance is of no use.” He said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prosecute her. He emphasised how she had been a Rajya Sabha member for four terms (24 of the 29 years she was in the party) “without fighting a single Lok Sabha election”.
Natarajan’s stewardship of the Union environment ministry had become an issue in the Manmohan Singh government, with critics inside and outside the party saying it had been an irrational hindrance to development projects. On Friday, however, she declared it was at Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s behest that she as minister had taken “a hard line on environmental clearances” in large projects like that of Vedanta in Odisha and the Adani project in Gujarat. Even so, she said, she’d been made to quit as minister only 100 days before the 2014 elections, for no fault of hers.
It was after her letter on these matters to Congress President Sonia Gandhi in November 2014 appeared in The Hindu newspaper on Friday that Natarajan said she’d decided to go public with the “hurt, anguish and vilification campaign” launched against her.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley issued a statement that all projects earlier rejected or approved for environment clearances should be reviewed. Natarajan said she “welcomed” this. Brushing off Narendra Modi’s ‘Jayanthi Tax’ barb against her in the run up to the 2014 polls (referring to the fact that her ministry was blamed for alleged paralysis in economic policy making in that government), Natarajan said: “How can I blame Shri Modi when I attacked him so viciously (on the ‘snoopgate’ scandal in Gujarat when Modi was chief minister there) and when my own party has treated me so badly? He was then an opposition party chief minister; how can I blame him?”
Scotching speculation of her joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, she said she was not joining any party as of now but would think about her political career.
BJP sources said there was no question of Natarajan joining the BJP and referred to her lack of a mass base or that of her Mudaliar community.
Natarajan, when asked by reporters, categorically denied any suggestions of corruption associated with Rahul Gandhi’s stand on these project. She said the “party line” was to uphold the “rights of forest dwellers and tribals”. “Sonia Gandhi as UPA (the then governing coalition) chairperson also said forest rights should be protected.”
Reacting to these charges, a Congress leader said she had in fact “served to complement” Rahul Gandhi as a crusader of the rights of the tribals, poor and downtrodden. Congress also alluded to the possibility of the BJP and BJP-linked corporate groups ‘blackmailing Natarajan’.
Singhvi stated the Congress had been consistent in its stand on these issues and it was a part of the Congress manifesto, “What is wrong in implementing it?” he asked.
Congress leaders through the day kept informing journalists on how there were complaints of files kept pending on projects that should have been routinely cleared and did not need a nod from the then minister. One drew attention to a file that was reportedly in a washroom and how files were allegedly routed through her residence in Chennai.
Whatever be the veracity of the allegations and their replies, the Congress acknowledged that “opportunists” such as Natarajan and Krishna Tirath (also an ex-Union minister who has quit; she’s joined the BJP) had been given undue importance and positions. They rejected the view that the Congress needed to introspect, with one senior after another quitting. “It is for the public to see for themselves the betrayers,” said Singhvi.
“The decision for Jayanthi Natarajan’s departure was a considered one, taken by both the Congress President and the UPA Prime Minister,” he added.
She defamed govt, party: Cong seniors
Former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said that at a Confederation of Indian Industry event in Mumbai, “They (industrialists) did complain to me about her bitterly... They said in the presence of senior secretaries of the Government of India that files were cleared from Chennai …They told me that I should understand the reason when one was asked to go to a specific OSD.” Sharma claimed hundreds of files had to be collected from Chennai after she had resigned.
Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy said: ”Sometimes, she was not reachable even to party MPs from my state.” Congress MPs from Kerala had to seek the intervention of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to get access to Natarajan to discuss ”burning issues” related to implementation of the Kasturirangan and Madhav Gadgil reports on the Western Ghats, is the allegation. Kerala leaders alleged she was “insensitive” to their concerns and had damaged Congress prospects immensely, as the minustry decisions in the wake of these reports adversely impacted framers in the Western Ghats in the state.
Jairam Ramesh, environment minister before Natarajan, said: ”As Jayanti 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. Her allegations against him are not just completely unfair but also preposterously baseless.”
She held a press conference in Chennai on Friday morning, saying she was ending her family’s four-generation association with the Congress.
The party hit back, saying “serious allegations” of corruption against her had led to her removal from the earlier government.
This is another high-profile exit in Tamil Nadu after ex-Union minister G K Vasan declared he was walking out, lambasted the Congress’ ‘high command culture’ and formed his own party.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in Delhi: “There were serious allegations against her and her pretended ignorance is of no use.” He said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prosecute her. He emphasised how she had been a Rajya Sabha member for four terms (24 of the 29 years she was in the party) “without fighting a single Lok Sabha election”.
Natarajan’s stewardship of the Union environment ministry had become an issue in the Manmohan Singh government, with critics inside and outside the party saying it had been an irrational hindrance to development projects. On Friday, however, she declared it was at Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s behest that she as minister had taken “a hard line on environmental clearances” in large projects like that of Vedanta in Odisha and the Adani project in Gujarat. Even so, she said, she’d been made to quit as minister only 100 days before the 2014 elections, for no fault of hers.
It was after her letter on these matters to Congress President Sonia Gandhi in November 2014 appeared in The Hindu newspaper on Friday that Natarajan said she’d decided to go public with the “hurt, anguish and vilification campaign” launched against her.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley issued a statement that all projects earlier rejected or approved for environment clearances should be reviewed. Natarajan said she “welcomed” this. Brushing off Narendra Modi’s ‘Jayanthi Tax’ barb against her in the run up to the 2014 polls (referring to the fact that her ministry was blamed for alleged paralysis in economic policy making in that government), Natarajan said: “How can I blame Shri Modi when I attacked him so viciously (on the ‘snoopgate’ scandal in Gujarat when Modi was chief minister there) and when my own party has treated me so badly? He was then an opposition party chief minister; how can I blame him?”
Scotching speculation of her joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, she said she was not joining any party as of now but would think about her political career.
BJP sources said there was no question of Natarajan joining the BJP and referred to her lack of a mass base or that of her Mudaliar community.
Natarajan, when asked by reporters, categorically denied any suggestions of corruption associated with Rahul Gandhi’s stand on these project. She said the “party line” was to uphold the “rights of forest dwellers and tribals”. “Sonia Gandhi as UPA (the then governing coalition) chairperson also said forest rights should be protected.”
Reacting to these charges, a Congress leader said she had in fact “served to complement” Rahul Gandhi as a crusader of the rights of the tribals, poor and downtrodden. Congress also alluded to the possibility of the BJP and BJP-linked corporate groups ‘blackmailing Natarajan’.
Singhvi stated the Congress had been consistent in its stand on these issues and it was a part of the Congress manifesto, “What is wrong in implementing it?” he asked.
Congress leaders through the day kept informing journalists on how there were complaints of files kept pending on projects that should have been routinely cleared and did not need a nod from the then minister. One drew attention to a file that was reportedly in a washroom and how files were allegedly routed through her residence in Chennai.
Whatever be the veracity of the allegations and their replies, the Congress acknowledged that “opportunists” such as Natarajan and Krishna Tirath (also an ex-Union minister who has quit; she’s joined the BJP) had been given undue importance and positions. They rejected the view that the Congress needed to introspect, with one senior after another quitting. “It is for the public to see for themselves the betrayers,” said Singhvi.
“The decision for Jayanthi Natarajan’s departure was a considered one, taken by both the Congress President and the UPA Prime Minister,” he added.
She defamed govt, party: Cong seniors
Former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said that at a Confederation of Indian Industry event in Mumbai, “They (industrialists) did complain to me about her bitterly... They said in the presence of senior secretaries of the Government of India that files were cleared from Chennai …They told me that I should understand the reason when one was asked to go to a specific OSD.” Sharma claimed hundreds of files had to be collected from Chennai after she had resigned.
Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy said: ”Sometimes, she was not reachable even to party MPs from my state.” Congress MPs from Kerala had to seek the intervention of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to get access to Natarajan to discuss ”burning issues” related to implementation of the Kasturirangan and Madhav Gadgil reports on the Western Ghats, is the allegation. Kerala leaders alleged she was “insensitive” to their concerns and had damaged Congress prospects immensely, as the minustry decisions in the wake of these reports adversely impacted framers in the Western Ghats in the state.
Jairam Ramesh, environment minister before Natarajan, said: ”As Jayanti 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. Her allegations against him are not just completely unfair but also preposterously baseless.”