File Photo: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has called for a review of all projects cleared or rejected by the environment ministry of the previous UPA government, after former minister Jayanthi Natarajan's explosive letter accusing Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi of interference was made public today.
"All projects need to be re-looked so that all the wrong doings that have happened can be reversed," the Finance Minister said, accusing the Congress government of "crony capitalism."
Mr Jaitley said that a delay in clearances had resulted in growth rates going down radically and accused the UPA of "practicing Sadistic Economy." The economy, he said, suffered as "projects worth lakhs and lakhs of crores were held up because of the whims and fancies of individual leaders."
Ms Natrajan, who has quit the Congress, alleges in the letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, that "specific requests" by Mr Gandhi were the basis of clearances by her ministry to industrial projects.
"The issues which were considered rumours have been confirmed. This letter shows the reality of the UPA govt. There cannot be coercion in environment clearances," Mr Jaitley said.
Ms Natarajan has listed several big projects where she alleges she was given 'specific inputs" to influence her decision, among them the Vedanta project in Odisha and projects of the Gujarat-based Adani group, whose promoters are seen as close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rahul Gandhi's views on the Vedanta project "were conveyed to me by his office, and I took great care to ensure that the interests of the tribals were protected and rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta despite tremendous pressure from my colleagues in cabinet, and huge criticism from industry for what was described as "stalling" a Rs. 30,000 crore investment from Vedanta," she writes.
"The same happened in the case of the Adani projects, where I faced tremendous criticism from within the cabinet and outside, for stalling investment at a time when the country was going through a difficult time in terms of the economy. The complaints of the local fisherfolk and NGOs of environmental violations in the Adani case were forwarded to me by Shri Rahul Gandhi's office," says Ms Natarajan in her letter.