Jayanthi Natarajan

Jayanthi Natarajan

MoS for Environment and Forests
In office July 2011 – Dec 2013
Prime Minister	Dr Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Jairam Ramesh
Succeeded by	Veerappa Moily
Constituency	Tamil Nadu
Personal details
Born	(1954-06-07) 7 June 1954 Madras, India
Political party	Indian National Congress Resigned in Feb,2015
Spouse(s)	V. K. Natarajan
Children	one son
Residence	New Delhi
As of 26 January, 2007 Source:

Jayanthi Natarajan (born 7 June 1954) is an Indian lawyer and politician. She was a member of the Indian National Congress and has been thrice elected Member of Parliament representing the state of Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha. Since July 2011, she has been the Union Minister of State (Independent charge), Minister of Forests and Environment. She resigned as minister of state for environment and forest on 21 Dec 2013.On January 30,2015, she announced in press conference at Chennai that she would be resigning from Congress party alleging that "specific requests" by Rahul Gandhi 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.^[1]

Early years

Jayanthi Natarajan was born in Madras, India. She was born to Dr C R Sundararajan and Mrs. Rukmini Sundararajan. Jayanthi Natarajan is also niece of notable social worker Mrs. Sarojini Varadappan. Her grandfather was M. Bakthavatsalam, a prominent Congress politician and 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 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 ^[2]^[3]

Political career

Congress Years

Her political career began when she was noticed by Rajiv Gandhi 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 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 in Tamil Nadu and was a part of the United Front 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 and appointed spokesperson for the party. She replaced Mr. Jairam Ramesh as Environment Minister on July 12, 2011 in the UPA led Union Government. She served as the Minister of State for Environment and forests (Independent Charge) from July 12, 2011 to December 20, 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.^[4]

Resignation from the Congress Party

Jayanti Natarajan resigned from the Congress Party on 30th January 2015.^[5] In a letter^[6] written to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Jayanti Natarajan accused the party machinery - specifically Mr. Rahul Gandhi - 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. Specifically, 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 rumours that she was made to resign on December 20, 2013 due to her stance on these projects.

References

Cabinet of Manmohan Singh (2009-2014)

Prime Minister: Manmohan Singh

Cabinet Ministers

Agriculture	Sharad Pawar

Civil Aviation	Ajit Singh

Coal	Shriprakash Jaiswal

Commerce and Industry	Anand Sharma

Communications and IT	Kapil Sibal

Culture	Chandresh Kumari Katoch

Defence	A. K. Antony

Earth Sciences	Jaipal Reddy

External Affairs	Salman Khurshid

Finance	P. Chidambaram

Food Processing Industries	Sharad Pawar

Health and Family Welfare	Ghulam Nabi Azad

Heavy Ind. & Public Enterprises	Praful Patel

Home Affairs	Sushilkumar Shinde

Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation	Girija Vyas

Human Resource Development	Pallam Raju

Labour and Employment	Sis Ram Ola

Law and Justice	Kapil Sibal

Mines	Dinsha Patel

Minority Affairs	K. Rahman Khan

New and Renewable Energy	Farooq Abdullah

Overseas Indian Affairs	Vayalar Ravi

Parliamentary Affairs	Kamal Nath

Petroleum and Natural Gas	Veerappa Moily

Railway	Mallikarjun Kharge

Road Transport and Highways	Oscar Fernandes

Rural development	Jairam Ramesh

Science and Technology	Jaipal Reddy

Social Justice and Emp.	Selja Kumari

Steel	Beni Prasad Verma

Shipping	G. K. Vasan

Textiles	Kavuri Samba Siva Rao

Tribal Affairs	Kishore Chandra Deo

Urban Development	Kamal Nath

Water Resources	Harish Rawat

Ministers of State (Independent Charge)

Chemicals and Fertilizers	Srikant Kumar Jena

Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution	K. V. Thomas

Corporate Affairs	Sachin Pilot

Development of North Eastern Region	Paban Singh Ghatowar

Drinking Water and Sanitation	Bharatsinh Madhavsinh Solanki

Environment and Forests	Jayanthi Natarajan

Information and Broadcasting	Manish Tewari

MSME	K. H. Muniyappa

Power	Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia

Statistics and Programme Implementation	Srikant Kumar Jena

Tourism	K. Chiranjeevi

Women and Child Dev.	Krishna Tirath

Youth Affairs and Sports	Jitendra Singh

Ministers of State

Agriculture	Charan Das Mahant, Tariq Anwar

Civil Aviation	K. C. Venugopal

Coal	Pratik Prakashbapu Patil

Commerce and Industry	Daggubati Purandeswari, E. M. Sudarsana Natchiappan

Comm. & IT	Killi Krupa Rani, Milind Murli Deora

Corporate Affairs	R. P. N. Singh

Defence	Jitendra Singh

External Affairs	E. Ahamed, Preneet Kaur

Finance	Namo Narain Meena, S. S. Palanimanickam

Food Processing Ind.	Charan Das Mahant

Health and Family Welfare	Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, S. Gandhiselvan

Home Affairs	Mullappally Ramachandran, R. P. N. Singh

Human Resource Development	Jitin Prasada, Shashi Tharoor

Information and Broadcasting	S. Jagathrakshakan

Labour and Employment	Kodikunnil Suresh

Minority Affairs	Ninong Ering

Parliamentary Affairs	Paban Singh Ghatowar, Rajeev Shukla

Petroleum and Natural Gas	Panabaka Lakshmi, R. P. N. Singh

New and Renewable Energy	S. Jagathrakshakan

Personnel, Public Griev. & Pensions	V. Narayanasamy

Planning Commission	Rajeev Shukla

Power	K. C. Venugopal

PMO	V. Narayanasamy

Railway	Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K. J. Surya Prakash Reddy

Road Trans. & Highways	Sarvey Sathyanarayana, Tushar Amarsinh Chaudhary

Rural development	Lal Chand Kataria, Pradeep Jain Aditya

Shipping	Milind Murli Deora

Social Justice and Emp.	Balram Naik, Manikrao Hodlya Gavit

Textiles	Panabaka Lakshmi

Tribal Affairs	Mahadeo Singh Khandela, Ranee Narah

Urban Development	Deepa Dasmunsi

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