Nation burdened with 'Jayanthi tax': Modi

Ex-environment minister denies bribe allegation, says Gujarat CM getting back at her as she stalled two of his projects

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, on Sunday made a veiled reference to the removal of Jayanthi Natarajan from the environment ministry, saying for the first time he had heard of a "Jayanthi tax", apparently referring to allegations of corruption during her tenure.

"There was a storm over the environment ministry and all files were blocked. No file was moving without money. We had heard of income, sales and excise taxes but for the first time, we heard about a Jayanthi tax in Delhi without which nothing was moving. Till the time that was not paid, files could not be moved in the environment ministry. I have never experienced it myself as I never need it but we are shocked on this. What kind of systems have they developed?" he said at a rally here.

Natarajan denied the allegations, saying the BJP leader was trying to target her as she had been vocal against him and had blocked two of his projects.

"It is a targeted personal attack. It is completely baseless. There are major green violations in Gujarat. He was destroying the environment. I was opposed to his destruction of the environment," Natarajan said.

On the issue of restrictions over mining due to environmental issues, Modi said his party would "protect environment and bring transparency in mining" to help economy, which depends on infrastructure, raw material and human resources to grow.

Accusing the Congress party of playing vote bank politics, Modi attacked Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde over his proposal to state governments to review terrorism cases against members of the minority community.

"Just look at their brazenness. They are playing communal politics. The home minister has written a letter to state governments that if you arrest a law breaker, see that Muslims are not arrested. Why is it so? Does a law breaker have any religion?" he said.

A look at the major projects cleared since Moily took charge as the environment minister

• Posco's 12-million-tonne steel plant in Odisha Rs 52,000 cr
• NPC's 2,800-Mw power plant in Haryana Rs 23,000 cr
• NHPC's Arunachal Pradesh hydro project Rs 6,000 cr
• Vizhinjam deepwater container transshipment port Rs 5,000 cr
• Ennore LNG terminal Rs 5,000 cr
• Kapurdi Lignite Mine Project in Rajasthan Rs 467 cr