Photo: The Hindu
Former Environment minister and one of the prominent Congress leaders, Jayanthi Natarajan has decided to quit the party. Natarajan, who was asked to resign from the UPA government just 100 days prior to Lok Sabha polls, found herself in isolation and “scapegoat” status, announced her resignation through an explosive letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi in which she attacked Rahul Gandhi.
According to the report and letter published in The Hindu, Natarajan expressed her “anguish”, “mental agony” and “humiliation” to Sonia Gandhi. In the letter she alleged that as a minister of Environment she had to suffer Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s interference and “requests”.
“During my tenure as Minister, it was the clear and specific policy of the party, to take all steps to protect the environment… and keep a balance between environment and industry. As Chairperson NAC, you have written several letters to me regarding projects in the Environment Ministry, and protection of tribal rights, and I have always kept you briefed that due care was being taken by me to protect the environment. I received specific requests (which used to be directives for us) from Shri Rahul Gandhi and his office forwarding environmental concerns in some important areas and I took care to honour those ‘requests’,” she wrote.
Natarajan said that she was asked to resign by “tense and grim” Dr Manmohan Singh who informed her “Jayanthi, I have been told by Congress President, that your services are required for party work… She wants you to resign.”
However, after resign she found out that she was given no such assignment. In fact, she was “shocked and distressed to receive a telephone call from Ajay Maken, Head of Congress Media cell” to inform her that her name “was being removed from the list of party spokespersons” and the decision was taken “at the highest level”.
“The next day my resignation was headlines in the media, and all the initial reports correctly reported that I had stepped down for party work. By the afternoon, to my shock, I received information that persons from the office of Shri Rahul Gandhi were calling the media and planting stories that my resignation was NOT for party work,” she wrote.
Former environment minister accused in her letter that she had tried repeated attempt to meet Rahul Gandhi but “He replied that he was “running a little busy” at that time, but that he would meet me a little later. Despite several requests, that day never came. Not till this minute.”
Emotional Jayanthi Natarajan wrote, “Surely you were aware that removing a Minister just one hundred days before Lok Sabha elections without any wrongdoing being even alleged against her, and on the contrary, the Prime Minister lauding my work in writing, would have devastating effects upon me, my career, everything I have worked for over 30 years, and above all the patriotic legacy of my family? Yet this was done to me. I am a mere cog in the wheel, a helpless loyal Congress worker. Just as could be predicted, my reputation, my career and my life now lie in shreds around me. And I have committed no wrong.”
You can read the full letter here:
Tags: Congress india Jayanthi Natarajan Rahul Gandhi Sonia Gandhi
