Jayanthi Natarajan sets cat among the pigeons
More than Ms Jayanthi Natarajan, it is Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi who must answer on the issues that the former Minister for Environment and Forests in the UPA Government has flagged on certain contentious decisions she took while in office. Ms Natarajan has categorically said that she made those decisions on Mr Gandhi's “directives”. The other point she raised is that, after giving such directions, he later disowned her and the actions she had taken at his behest.
It is true that as a Minister, Ms Natarajan had no business to treat the ‘requests' of the Congress leader, who had no position in the Government, as directives, and that she was accountable in her official capacity to the Prime Minister alone. But then, given the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty's hold over the Congress and the party's Governments, her action was not surprising. And, she was not the only Minister to have done the party's first family's bidding. The larger issue here is the brazen interference in the Manmohan Singh Government's functioning by the likes of Mr Gandhi. The issue of Nehru-Gandhi family members' interference had been earlier exposed by Mr Singh's media advisor Sanjaya Baru and former Union Minister K Natwar Singh, but Ms Natarajan's case is different. She was considered to be part of the core group which was close to the Nehru-Gandhi family — a family confidante, in a way.
Therefore, what she says has added heft. The selectiveness of Mr Gandhi in prodding the then Environment Minister to take decisions demonstrates that the Environment and Forests Ministry was governed not by laid down policies but by the whims and fancies of Mr Gandhi and the like, which would include the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council. The Congress vice president must answer why he sought to directly influence decision-making in the ministry. Although as a senior party leader, he had the right to promote the party's position on critical issues of governance, he should have taken his ideas to the Prime Minister, instead of dealing directly with Ministers and coaxing them to toe his line. It reflects on Mr Gandhi's arrogance that he should have bypassed the Prime Minister in such matters. As for Mr Manmohan Singh remaining silent to this brazen interference, it can hardly cause a flutter.
A battery of Congress leaders has launched a vituperative attack on Ms Natarajan, accusing her variously of being incompetent and opportunistic. They have even levelled allegations of corruption against her. It is for the former Minister to defend herself. Meanwhile, the focus remains on the questionable leadership that Mr Gandhi has been providing to the beleaguered Congress, which has lost election after election with him virtually at the helm. Ms Natarajan's indictment is a clear indication of her loss of trust in the party's leadership, which is also why she has quit the Congress. By now it should be clear to any bipartisan observer that the Nehru-Gandhi family brand has lost its shine. The party has in recent days seen senior leaders quitting and crossing over to rival camps. But the Congress remains in a denial mode over leadership failure at the very top. As long as it maintains this stand, it will lose ground even further.