New Delhi: Strongly criticising the national high command of the Congress, former union minister Jayanthi Natarajan Friday resigned from the primary membership of the party, after shooting off an explosive letter directly attacking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Natarajan said she was forced by the party last year to target the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on “snoopgate.” In the campaign for last year’s national elections, the Congress repeatedly raised “snoopgate”, or the alleged spying on a young woman on the orders of the Gujarat government in 2009, when Modi was chief minister.
“While I was still a Minister, an important matter which caused me great agitation is the fact that I was called upon to attack the present Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on what is referred to in the media as ‘Snoopgate’,” Natarajan said in the letter to Sonia.
She said she initially refused, as she thought that the party should attack Modi on policy and governance and “not drag an unknown woman” into a controversy.
Natarajan said that she was pained by the treatment meted out to her by the party.
“I cannot survive in a suffocating environment anymore. I feel that the time has come now for me to rethink my association because of what happened in the recent past.
“The Congress is no longer the Congress that I joined. I hereby resign from the primary membership of the Congress party,” she said.
Launching a direct attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the former minister said that all her decisions as the minister of environment were overtaken by his directives.
She said she received “specific requests” from Rahul Gandhi’s office which she treated as directives — these, she said, were complaints made by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) against industrial projects which they said would cause great environmental damage.
Two big projects on this list included Vedanta Resources’ plans to mine bauxite in Odisha from land held sacred by tribals, and some projects of the Adani Group in Odisha.
As a result, she said that through her tenure as Environment Minister, she faced the “anger and wrath” of others in the cabinet who blamed her stalling development by refusing green clearances for major projects.
In December 2013, she said then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “looking grim” said she must resign, as sought by “Madam Gandhi.”
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has called for a review of all projects cleared or rejected by the environment ministry of the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Jaitley said that a delay in clearances had resulted in growth rates going down radically and accused the UPA of “practicing sadistic economy. The economy suffered as projects worth lakhs and lakhs of crores [billions] were held up because of the whims and fancies of individual leaders. The issues which were considered rumours have been confirmed. This letter shows the reality of the UPA government. There cannot be coercion in environment clearances.”
Soon after Natarajan’s letter, Congress came out in defence of Rahul Gandhi.
“Rahul Gandhi had been fighting for the rights for the weaker sections in public. He has spoken publicly on the issue and if Natarajan or anyone else claims he was responsible for stopping the Vedanta mines clearance I don’t think there is substance in it. Rahul always was concerned about environment. In that regard, if he spoke to minister or anyone it is not a big deal,” Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam told the Gulf News.
“This is a baseless allegation. If someone wants to resign, they are free do to so. Making wild allegations is unacceptable,” Congress leader PC Chacko said.
