Gandhi family took all decisions, reduced Manmohan Singh to titular head: BJP

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday used a series of email exchanges to accuse the Gandhi family of interfering in the work of the previous UPA government and reducing then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to "just a titular head."

"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 government interfered in governance during UPA," said Union minister Piyush Goyal at a press conference, brandishing a series of emails that he said showed how "projects were stalled and environment ministry was used" in the UPA government.

"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," he charged.


Goyal said that Rahul had "disrespected" Singh with his "counter instructions to ministers," and even "overruled" him.

He said that the emails showed that Rahul had instructed Natarajan to not give environmental clearance to the Nirma project in Gujarat.

"Rahul Gandhi opposed Nirma and instructed Jayanthi Natarajan to not give environmental clearance. He was willing to kill jobs in Gujarat to undermine, to hurt the developmental agenda of Narendra Modi," he said.

The BJP also accused him of giving then-environment minister "guidance" and instructions on the Lavasa issue.