Jairam Ramesh rubbishes Jayanthi Natarajan's allegations against Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who was the Environment Minister before Jayanthi Natarajan, today rubbished her allegations about Rahul Gandhi's interference in the ministry's work as "not just completely unfair but also preposterously baseless."

In a statement here, Ramesh said, "As Jayanti Natarajan's immediate predecessor for slightly over 25 months, I can say with all honesty that at no point of time did Rahul Gandhi ever tell me, directly or indirectly, what to do or what not to do in the discharge of my ministerial responsibilities.

"Her allegations against him are not just completely unfair but also preposterously baseless."

Ramesh's statement came after Natarajan quit the Congress party, claiming that she followed directions of Rahul Gandhi on green nod to projects but was "vilified, humiliated and sidelined" by central leadership.

"I have only followed the party line and rule book on all environment issues. To protect the forest rights of people and the rights of tribals in cases like Vedanata. There was no wrong doing on my part," she asserted at an hurriedly-called press conference in Chennai.

Virtually opening a can of worms, she accused Rahul Gandhi's office of planting stories to sully her reputation after she had resignaed as Environment Minister on the direction of Sonia Gandhi.