Natarajan quits Congress, blames the party's high command - Livemint

The letter published in a daily said Jayanthi Natarajan was asked to resign in less than 100 days before the country went to general election.

Chennai/New Delhi: In a sign of growing political dissent within the Congress party, former environment minister and veteran politician Jayanthi Natarajan resigned from the party on Friday with a scathing attack on the party’s senior leadership, claiming that she had been vilified and sidelined by the top brass.

Natarajan, a four-time Rajya Sabha member, said that as the minister of environment she had only followed the directions of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi “to protect and preserve the environment”, suggesting interference by the Congress leader with the workings of her ministry.

“I did my duty with due diligence, investigated projects. I had to put several projects on hold because of this. I served the country,” Natarajan, told reporters in Chennai. “I was asked to resign from my ministerial post in December 2013, a mere 100 days before the parliamentary elections, by prime minister Manmohan Singh and to involve myself with party work,” she added.

Subsequently, she said, she had been “vilified, humiliated and sidelined” by the central leadership of India’s oldest political party.

Natarajan’s resignation and attack on the party leadership is an embarrassment for the Congress, which suffered its biggest defeat in last year’s general election and is reduced to 44 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

Denial of environmental clearances to many big-ticket industrial projects during her term in the environment ministry was blamed for stalling investments and contributing to India’s economic growth slowing to sub-5% levels in the past two financial years.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, meanwhile, attacked the Congress for “crony capitalism” and sought a review of projects that were granted or denied environmental clearances during the regime of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

“I hope the environment ministry now will go into each of these permissions which were granted and not granted and make sure that these are expeditiously dealt with only as per law and no other consideration,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said in New Delhi.

The Hindu first reported on Friday that in a letter written in November last year to Congress party president Sonia Gandhi , Natarajan slammed the party chief and vice-president and said that she had become a victim of a “vicious, false and motivated” media campaign by some individuals in the party after Rahul Gandhi shifted from a “pro-environmental stance” to a “corporate friendly” one.

Since the party’s drubbing in general elections last year, the Congress has faced several defections, especially in Tamil Nadu, where its ground presence and organization are already weak.

Senior leader and the late G.K. Moopanar’s son G.K. Vasan quit the party in November and started his own political outfit. Karti Chidambaram , son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram , has been vocal in his criticism of the functioning of the party.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi slammed Natarajan for what he called a diatribe that was “hypocritical and opportunistic” and also factually untrue.

One political analyst said Natarajan’s departure would have no negative impact on the Congress.

“Jayanthi Natarajan has done good to the Congress party while quitting by showing Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in a positive light—that they didn’t favour corporates who had vested interests in getting their projects approved with no consideration on the detrimental impact it can have on the environment,” said Gnani Sankaran, a Chennai-based political commentator.

“She accuses Rahul Gandhi of later favouring the corporates but doesn’t give substantial incidents. Her leaving the Congress will not impact the national party in Tamil Nadu, where it has little presence, or at the national level,” he added.

This is not the first time that the 60-year-old Natarajan has quit the Congress party. In 1996, she left the party and joined the Tamil Maanila Congress started by G.K. Moopanar.

This time, she said she has no plans to join any other political party. “I intend to think on my life and future.”

Mayank Aggarwal in New Delhi contributed to the story.

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