Joke of a jayanthi

By Prem Chandran

Honourable former minister Jayanthi Natarajan may or may not be under pressure to try discredit the Congress party leadership on the eve of the Delhi elections, but what she opted to do has turned out at best to be a joke, if not an 'escape act'. She has said that Rahul Gandhi interfered with the functioning of her ministry, but she said this without proper, valid or credible proof by way of substantiation. Granted that this has happened, why had she waited for long to "spill the beans" or set the record right?

Jayanti Natarajan was at one time seen as a confidant of Rahul Gandhi, despite the age difference the two had. Then, a day came when she was asked out of the Manmohan Ministry, where she held the environment portfolio, with the explanation that she was needed for partywork. She found herself in a situation where she neither had party-work assigned to her, nor the aura of power she enjoyed for a long while. She was found literally on the sidelines, with even the additional responsibility of party spokesperson status being lost. For someone who enjoyed position, power and limelight for a long three decades, the decimation to a virtual zero could not but be painful and tragic. But, why choose to take on Rahul Gandhi, and why give him a knockout punch at a time when he is struggling to make a mark in politics?

Prima facie, there is little in the allegation she raised against the Congress vice president. It is fairly well-known that the Congress party leadership guided the UPA governments from behind, under situations that partly justified such an involvement. The people of India voted in the alliance led by the Congress party to run the government. It will be nobody’s argument that they voted for a Manmohan Singh, or even a Sonia Gandhi. People reposed the trust in the Congress party, which, if anything, was the most popular political establishment at that time. The party, therefore, is answerable to the people for the rights and wrongs of the government it headed. Set this against the new context, in which people voted for a Narendra Modi government, not a BJP government or NDA rule, per se.

Rahul Gandhi as the second most important individual in the party, as vice president and heir apparent, had every right to guide the policies of the government, just as Sonia Gandhi had. That there were other issues that got intertwined with this scenario, leading to a policy paralysis at the Centre, is an altogether different matter. There, at the same time, were positive sides to the understanding that a Manmohan Singh as PM and Sonia-Rahul as party leadership maintained all through the UPA rules.

Rahul Gandhi forwarding some representations from NGOs or others with a note, “Please look into this,” or "protect the environment" is something that, at face value, one cannot find fault with. Natarajan chose to strike (at the leadership) when she found the iron was hot, or when the leadership is on the defensive on several counts like the repeated defeats for the party in a series of elections. And, if it enthuses some, the better.

Natarajan may or may not be under the NDA government scanner for her actions as environment minister, as the media was quick to project. Likely. There are strong grounds to suspect that. It is also revealed by Natarajan herself that she went public after she lost “touch” with the central party leadership. She waited for 11 months to get a call from Delhi, and found the party had no use anymore for her. That, understandably, is too much to bear for someone with an inflated ego. Inflated egos are more for weak leaders propped up from above. But, should she choose to backstab the leadership at the most inopportune time, that too for no obvious new reason, and with little to gain from it? There is little, too, for her to hope to get from the BJP, even as she now makes a clean breast of her “forced” tirade against Narendra Modi a couple of years ago when the Snoopgate allegation surfaced against him.

She makes it a point to stress that she belongs to a politically illustrious family whose four generations were part of the Grand Old Party, a family that at one time held the post of Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Well, with this background, and with three decades of prominence and power she enjoyed courtesy the Congress party, what more did she want now? Especially when the party's hands were largely tied? Her unwillingness to be allowed to be sidelined is understandable, but there are very many other former Congress leaders who sit back and relax in the changed situations. None of them has gone public to tarnish image of the party that gave them so much. They are not as thankless.

Granted that Jayanti Natarajan deserved some importance, one might be tempted to ask her a question: After being in public life for three decades and with a great family background to back her, how much support she, as a leader, enjoys among the masses, be it in TN or pan India? At best, she could hope to get the backing of some of her community elders out of sheer sympathy. She being at the helm had not helped the Congress grow its strength by a few dozen more members in TN, per se. She sat in Rajya Sabha.

The Congress virtually has no stock in the state for ages. The party has gone on record to say if one or two more of such leaders in the state left the Congress, along with her, that would be good for it. Congress' fortunes in the state, rather, are dwindling. If Natarajan stands on the street today, and seeks to hold a procession, how many people in TN or elsewhere would be willing to follow her – now that no Congressman or woman would dare to be seen on her side? This is a debatable point. That would speak for her leadership strengths.

The Congress has gone on record to say some of her actions as environment minister are now under the scanner of the NDA government, and chances are that she would land in trouble. A recommendation from the party leadership to “look into this” cannot by itself be a justification for wrong actions, if any, she had taken. She as minister should have known how to conduct herself or she should have put the ball in the court of the PMO. Nor is it unlikely that someone might have given her the “trash the Congress leadership” formula as a probable “way out” of the troubles that lie ahead. What is likely is that Narendra Modi would not forget the feverish pitch with which she spoke up for womanhood a la Snoopgate.

Be that as it may, the channels' version that 'Jayanthi leads the charge against Rahul' is another joke. Either she is extremely on the defensive or thinks she still has some clout to make cat-calls at the leadership.

In the end, the likes of Jayanthi Natarajan would do well to be thankful to the party and its leadership that gave them so much –more so in the context that these worthies cannot hope to have a fan following even in the dozens! No political party can pander to everyone’s ambitions and for all times to come. A quiet retirement would have been dignified enough for Jayanthi, matching with the “illustriousness” that she boasts her family has. That too, if the NDA government allows her to rest in peace! premcee@gmail.com; www.indiahereandnow.com