Jayanthi Natarajan (born 7 June 1954) is an Indian lawyer and politician. She was a member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...

and has been thrice elected Member of Parliament representing the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

in the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, wikisource:Constitution of India/Part V#Article 80, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legisl ...

. From July 2011 to December 2013, she was the Minister of Forests and Environment (Independent Charge). She resigned as Minister of Environment and Forest on 21 December 2013. On 30 January 2015, she announced in a press conference at Chennai that she would be resigning from the Congress party alleging that "specific requests" by

Rahul Gandhi Rahul Gandhi ( ; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament, representing the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala in the 17th Lok Sabha. A member of the Indian National Congress, he served as the president of ...

were the basis of whether industrial projects were given clearances by her ministry, and that he shifted from a pro-environmental position to corporate-friendly stand for the elections in 2014.

Early years

Jayanthi Natarajan was born in Madras, India. She was born to Dr. C R Sundararajan and Rukmini Sundararajan. Jayanthi Natarajan is the niece of notable social worker

Sarojini Varadappan Sarojini Varadappan (21 September 1921 − 17 October 2013) was an Indian social worker from the state of Tamil Nadu. She was the daughter of former Chief Minister of Madras, M. Bhaktavatsalam. Early life Sarojini was born in Madras on 21 S ...

. Her maternal grandfather was M. Bakthavatsalam, a prominent Congress politician and the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu between 1963 and 1967. She did her schooling from a prominent Chennai school, Sacred Heart Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Church Park. Jayanthi studied at

Ethiraj College for Women Ethiraj College for Women is an arts and science college for women in Chennai, India, managed by the Ethiraj College Trust. It was founded in 1948 by the barrister V. L. Ethiraj of Vellore. History Ethiraj College for Women is an autonomous co ...

before pursuing law and became a practicing advocate in Madras. Apart from her commercial practice, she also did pro bono work for a number of social organizations including the All India Women's Conference, and the legal aid board. She also worked briefly as a newscaster for Doordarshan Kendra, Madras

Political career

Congress Years

Her political career began when she was noticed by

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to bec ...

in the 1980s. She was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1986 and once again in 1992.

Tamil Maanila Congress

During the 90's Jayanthi Natarajan and other leaders from Tamil Nadu who were unhappy with Narasimha Rao decided to break away from the party. They founded the

Tamil Maanila Congress The Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) (; TMC(M)) is an Indian regional political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is founded by the former Member of Parliament of the Republic of India G. K. Moopanar on 29 March 1996 as a breakaway fac ...

under G K Moopanar. Jayanthi Natarajan resigned from the Rajya Sabha and was re-elected in 1997 as a TMC member. The TMC was allied with the

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

in Tamil Nadu and was a part of the

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...

government in the centre. Jayanthi Natarajan was appointed Minister of State for Coal, Civil Aviation and Parliamentary Affairs in 1997.

Return to the Congress

With Moopanar's death, the TMC leaders decided to merge with the Congress. Jayanthi Natarajan was noticed by

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi (''née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independe ...

and appointed spokesperson for the party. She replaced Mr.

Jairam Ramesh Jairam Ramesh (born 9 April 1954) is an Indian politician belonging to Indian National Congress. He is a Member of Parliament representing Karnataka state in the Rajya Sabha. In July 2011, Jairam was elevated to the Union Council of Ministers ...

as Environment Minister on 12 July 2011 in the UPA led Union Government. She served as the Minister of State for Environment and forests (Independent Charge) from 12 July 2011 to 20 December 2013. She was allegedly asked to resign from her post to work for the Congress party in the run up to the General Elections of 2014.

Resignation from the Congress Party

''Also see Sahara-Birla Diaries Scandal'' Due to her name appearing in the Sahara Diaries amongst hundreds of politicians who had been paid for environmental clearances, Natarajan was asked by many in the Congress to resign due to accusations of corruption. This had been alluded to by Narendra Modi as "Jayanthi tax" during his 2014 election rhetoric. However, further evidence started to turn up in 2015. After the Sahara Diaries investigation Natarajan resigned from the Congress Party on 30 January 2015. In a letter written to

, Jayanti Natarajan accused the party machinery,

in particular, of having worked towards a campaign to malign her and her reputation. She also believed, according to the letter, that she was being made a scapegoat for the economic policy paralysis observed in the UPA-II government. She believed that while she took decisions of halting certain industrial and infrastructure projects at the behest of Mr. Rahul Gandhi, certain sections of the party spread rumors that she was made to resign on 20 December 2013 due to her stance on these projects. She planned to join with TMC, but noticing the strength of TMC she discarded the decision. The Congress maintained that it was the party which had asked Natarajan to resign. In September 2017, a CBI raid was carried out on her properties in Delhi and Chennai.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Natarajan, Jayanthi 1954 births Living people Environment ministers Union ministers of state of India Women union ministers of state of India Indian environmentalists Tamil Maanila Congress politicians Women in Tamil Nadu politics Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Indian National Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu Rajya Sabha members from Tamil Nadu Politicians from Chennai 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians 21st-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian politicians Women members of the Rajya Sabha