BJP accuses Gandhi family of meddling in govt decisions during UPA tenure

With the political temperature soaring in the poll-bound Gujarat, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday accused the Gandhi family of interfering in governmental decisions during the UPA tenure.

Citing e-mail exchanges between former environment minister Jayanti Natarajan and Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi, Goyal, while addressing a press conference here, accused Rahul of meddling in governmental decisions and hence, stalling the Nirma project in Gujarat by instructing Natarajan to not give environmental clearance to it.

"We have accessed email in which Jayanti Natarajan when UPA minister was even willing to go home to meet personal secretary of Rahul Gandhi. This was how people not a part of Govt interfered in governance during UPA?" asked Goyal.

"In UPA, how projects were stalled and environment ministry was used is evident in the email. Rahul Gandhi opposed Nirma project and instructed Jayanti Natarajan to not give environmental clearance. He was willing to kill jobs in Gujarat to undermine and to hurt development agenda of Narendra Modi," he added.

Goyal, further strengthening his attack, dubbed former prime minister Manmohan Singh as a mere titular head, who was controlled by the mother-son duo.

"Email exchanges between Rahul Gandhi and Jayanthi Natarajan show that all decisions were directly taken by the family and PM Manmohan Singh was just a titular head. Knowledge of Rahul Gandhi was such that he did not know that there was no proposal on Amethi-Rae Bareilly Highway, but he was instructing Jayanthi Natarajan to clear it," he said.