(Ashok Malik is a columnist and writer living in Delhi)
Grant the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhis this: they retain an extraordinary ability to influence the media in New Delhi.
Sanjaya Baru's The Accidental Prime Minister referred to an intellectual ecosystem that sustained the Congress' First Family in the 1990s, even when it was not in power. The Jayanthi Natarajan allegations have established the verity of Baru's words. As a senior BJP politician put it recently: "[B.S.] Yeddyurappa stayed on the front pages for a year, but Jayanthi Natarajan's charges have disappeared in a day!"
Natarajan also suggests she delayed decisions on specific projects - involving specific business houses and specific states, usually run by non-Congress governments - only when Rahul and Sonia Gandhi asked her to. Do note this does not absolve Natarajan. While she denies any charges of corruption, she does admit she set aside her professional judgement and ministerial disinterestedness to follow orders of party leaders who were not part of the government. Even if there is no financial transaction involved, is this not irregular and does it not amount to corruption in the wider sense of the term?
Natarajan was not a newcomer to the Congress. She represented the fourth generation in her family to have entered party politics. Her grandfather was Chief Minister of Madras state (now Tamil Nadu). She was considered close to Rajiv Gandhi and was at Sriperumbudur in May 1991 when he was so tragically assassinated. Absent a mass base or a pocked borough, her career was dependent on her perceived proximity to the Nehru-Gandhis.
There are two inter-connected reasons for this. First, when she was removed from government, Natarajan felt she was being framed for the economic decline in the dying years of the UPA. She argued policies of previous years in other ministries, including the Finance Ministry, and the actions and delays of her predecessor, Jairam Ramesh, were much more to blame. That aside, the overall philosophy of the Sonia-Rahul Congress was anything but encouraging of economic growth.
Heaven knows who did what deal, but when the Central Bureau of Investigation began looking into some of the cases, the Nehru-Gandhi family completely dumped Natarajan. She was on her own. Mrs and Master Gandhi protected their reputation. The reputation of Natarajan and her clan - which has some social standing in Chennai, even if it is politically irrelevant in contemporary Tamil Nadu - counted for nothing.
In good times, a leader delivers votes. In sombre times, a leader evokes faith, gathers his troops and keeps them united. It is so different in the Congress. In the past eight months, since the defeat in the Lok Sabha election, the Congress machinery has been summoned to defend Robert Vadra's land deals, defend the creative usurpation of assets in the National Herald case, and defend the Nehru-Gandhis against Jayanthi Natarajan.
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