India
Jayanthi Natarajan's angst ridden letter to Sonia Gandhi revels how decisions were made in the last months of the UPA II
Updated : Apr 15, 2015, 11:04 AM IST
In a huge blow to the Congress, former Union Minister Jayanthi Natarajan on friday quit the party.
Natarajan has sent a letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, in which she has charged that she was "wrongly vilified" and "defamed" in the media by sections of the party.
In a letter to Sonia Gandhi, published today in national daily The Hindu , Natarajan has said, "Over the last 11 months I have undergone untold mental and physical agony, as a result of this incident. I have major health issues due to my tension and humiliation over the treatment meted out to me, and my future looks bleak."
She further added, "More importantly, I need to save the legacy of my family or children and my future generations will not forgive me."
Accusing Rahul Gandhi of interference in her work, she wrote," 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.”
Reminding high command that she is a "fourth generation Congress worker", Natarajan has also questioned her removal as environment and forest minister.
In a letter she wrote, "I want to place on record, that from December 20, 2013, until now, I have still not been told by you, why I was asked to resign from the Council of Ministers, nor have I ever been asked or given an opportunity to explain, if indeed I had committed any wrongdoing."
She further added, "On the other hand, the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh wrote a letter to me, accepting my resignation, in which he praised the excellent work I had done as Minister, and what he termed my valuable contribution as Minister."
Blaming Rahul's aides form planting stories, Natarajan said, "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."
Natarajan, on December 21 had resigned from the post of environment Minister, apparently for being drafted into party work ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
The Tamil Nadu unit of the Congress is facing internal bickerings and the latest incident being the act of defiance by Karti Chidambaram, son of senior leader P Chidambaram, who refused to reply to a show cause notice issued to him by the state unit for his alleged anti-party remarks.