Modi used Jayanthi to target me, says Rahul

Aditi Tandon

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 4

Five days after former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan quit the Congress accusing party vice-president Rahul Gandhi of interfering with her ministerial functioning, the latter defended himself saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the ex-minister against him. “One day I say something against Modi ji, the next day he deploys Natarajan against me….because I speak for the poor,” the Gandhi scion said at his second public rally in poll-bound Delhi today, insinuating that the PM got back at him for questioning the Rs 10 lakh suit he wore to a meeting with US President Barack Obama recently.

Rahul, however, ended up admitting in the process that he had indeed asked Natarajan to safeguard the rights of the poor and tribals while clearing environment projects. “I have always fought for the poor and tribal people and I did tell Natarajan to protect the environment, the poverty-stricken and the tribals. The PM, however, used Natarajan to attack me but I will continue my fight for the poor,” Rahul said at the rally at Jehangirpuri here, speaking for the first time since January 30 when Natarajan resigned from the Congress alleging vilification for something she said she had not done on her own.
The allegations against Natarajan were that she stalled important projects as Environment Minister with the ex-Congress leader publicly stating that she only followed Rahul’s requests.
Seeking to blunt the damage afflicted by the “Natarajan bomb”, Rahul today played his old pro-poor, pro-marginalised card at the underdeveloped Delhi Assembly segment saying the BJP was working to benefit a handful of industrialists. The Congress has strategically been slamming the BJP as pro-capitalist and anti-poor with Rahul against flagging the issue of how the Modi government was bent on diluting the Land Acquisition law which the Congress “passed with great difficulty in its last term at the Centre”.
“Most of the corruption in India is land-related and we had taken steps to prevent that. We stood for the farmers in Bhatta Parsual and for the tribals in Niyamgiri,” recalled Rahul, accusing the BJP and the AAP of only paying lip service to the cause of transparency.

Modi’s suit UK-made, says Rahul Gandhi

Rahul attacked the PM’s monogrammed suit which was pictured during his meeting with US President Barack Obama and said the Rs10 lakh suit was made in the UK
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