Raju Korti
In my more than three decades in Journalism, I happened to bump into the suave and urbane Jayanthi Natarajan only once when she was Minister of State for Coal, Civil Aviation and Parliamentary Affairs in 1997. Then, my interaction with her was mostly from the sidelines as a bystander at a press conference.
In the light of the new soap opera being played out on the Congress turf, I can now relate to a crucial but un-noticed link that instantly makes you realize there is something more than amiss in her claim that she was "forced to blow up Modi snoopgate" by a party that was thriving on "lies and suffocation".
Now Jayanthi is a lawyer by profession and politician by choice. So there is every reason why her frustrated outbursts on the party she willingly prospered in, should be taken more than on face value. Jayanthi's wavering conscience had poked her similarly when she chose to break away from the Congress over the functioning of then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao. She had joined old guard GK Moopanar, of whom one heard mostly as an "Observer" visiting dissidence-hit Congress-ruled states to perform fire-fighting operations. The TMC in its new found hatred for the Congress had embraced the DMK.
Quite easily among the more articulate faces among the party's spokesmen, it is not clear when exactly Jayanthi realized that the party was back to its "lies and suffocation" mode. Since Sonia Gandhi was the one who found her to be intelligible enough to be the party spokesperson and Rahul was the one who had "vilified, humiliated and sidelined" her, it can be deduced that she was well aware that "lies and suffocation" were nothing new in a party where sycophancy and loyalty were the only merits.
There is nothing incredulous about Jayanthi's contention that there was too much interference during her tenure as Union Minister of State for Forests and Environment. Political meddling is routine at ministerial levels. What is incredible is for someone as feisty as Jayanthi Natarajan -- who stood up to the party's bosses and had replaced Jairam Ramesh -- should have endured it for so long. Her qualification as a lawyer and the craft inherited through political lineage are inconsistent with her submissive posturing during the time she was encumbered by the subterfuge in the party.
That Jayanthi has enough political wisdom to deflect Rahul's maneuver is evident the way she has portrayed the issue. With allegations of overruling the Forests Advisory Committee (FAC) and handing out big ticket contracts doing the rounds during her tenure, it is believed that the former minister would soon be confronting a probe. The party's damage-control machinery has, as usual, put up a ham-handed defense of the latest fiasco. “It should be clear to one and all that at whose instance she wrote the letter are the ones who coined the phrase Jayanthi Tax. It is also clear that the pressure exerted from the same people is the reason why she has written this letter now,” said Abhishek Singhvi, whose briefings are seldom taken seriously.
While theories will abound in the next few days, here is my summary observation of the whole episode: Jayanthi Natarajan has been a lawyer by profession and politician by choice. That she was "forced to blow up Modi's snoopgate" by a party that thrives on "lies and suffocation" is a stunning example of self-indictment.
In the light of the new soap opera being played out on the Congress turf, I can now relate to a crucial but un-noticed link that instantly makes you realize there is something more than amiss in her claim that she was "forced to blow up Modi snoopgate" by a party that was thriving on "lies and suffocation".
Now Jayanthi is a lawyer by profession and politician by choice. So there is every reason why her frustrated outbursts on the party she willingly prospered in, should be taken more than on face value. Jayanthi's wavering conscience had poked her similarly when she chose to break away from the Congress over the functioning of then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao. She had joined old guard GK Moopanar, of whom one heard mostly as an "Observer" visiting dissidence-hit Congress-ruled states to perform fire-fighting operations. The TMC in its new found hatred for the Congress had embraced the DMK.
Quite easily among the more articulate faces among the party's spokesmen, it is not clear when exactly Jayanthi realized that the party was back to its "lies and suffocation" mode. Since Sonia Gandhi was the one who found her to be intelligible enough to be the party spokesperson and Rahul was the one who had "vilified, humiliated and sidelined" her, it can be deduced that she was well aware that "lies and suffocation" were nothing new in a party where sycophancy and loyalty were the only merits.
There is nothing incredulous about Jayanthi's contention that there was too much interference during her tenure as Union Minister of State for Forests and Environment. Political meddling is routine at ministerial levels. What is incredible is for someone as feisty as Jayanthi Natarajan -- who stood up to the party's bosses and had replaced Jairam Ramesh -- should have endured it for so long. Her qualification as a lawyer and the craft inherited through political lineage are inconsistent with her submissive posturing during the time she was encumbered by the subterfuge in the party.
That Jayanthi has enough political wisdom to deflect Rahul's maneuver is evident the way she has portrayed the issue. With allegations of overruling the Forests Advisory Committee (FAC) and handing out big ticket contracts doing the rounds during her tenure, it is believed that the former minister would soon be confronting a probe. The party's damage-control machinery has, as usual, put up a ham-handed defense of the latest fiasco. “It should be clear to one and all that at whose instance she wrote the letter are the ones who coined the phrase Jayanthi Tax. It is also clear that the pressure exerted from the same people is the reason why she has written this letter now,” said Abhishek Singhvi, whose briefings are seldom taken seriously.
While theories will abound in the next few days, here is my summary observation of the whole episode: Jayanthi Natarajan has been a lawyer by profession and politician by choice. That she was "forced to blow up Modi's snoopgate" by a party that thrives on "lies and suffocation" is a stunning example of self-indictment.
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