Mahesh Jethmalani attacks Jairam Ramesh again, claims he 'sabotaged India’s hydel project'

The war of words between Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and BJP MP Mahesh Jethmalani has intensified as the latter has now accused the former of sabotaging India's hydel projects. 

In his latest tweet, Jethmalani alleged that Ramesh was responsible for holding India back in terms of Hydel project development across different states while China was making giant leaps over the same.  

"As EM #JairamRamesh sabotaged India’s vital Hydel projects.He halted Narmada dam construction in Gujarat & MP. Significantly, in a note to the then PM he put a question mark on all NE hydel projects. All this while China was making giant strides in HEP (sic)," the senior advocate tweeted. 

Multiple media reports suggest that Ramesh, in 2010, when he was an environment minister, wrote a letter to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opposing the Hydel projects in the northeast. He argued that constructing dams in the region is being perceived by the locals as an exploitation of the resources in the northeast. In the three-page letter, Ramesh reportedly requested that Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as its own territory, should not be made a 'pawn' in the bilateral conflict. 

Jethmalani's relentless exposing Congress-China link

The latest attack by Jethmalani follows a barrage of allegations against Ramesh and the entire Congress as they allegedly have links to China. Jethmalani made the first accusation on January 22 when he equated Chinese Xi Jinping's border visit to review his army's preparedness to Rahul Gandhi's prediction of a two-front war. 

"Rahul’s proclaimed 2 front war against India has begun: Bilawal calls PM a butcher and pro-Pak BBC releases its anti PM 2002 riots film. Xi checks the readiness of PLA troops on our border and Chinese pet JairamRamesh leads the anti-PM Congress tirade," he tweeted.

This was followed by him questioning Ramesh on why he advocated Chinese company 'Huawei' which is banned in the US on the grounds of espionage. Ramesh, however, 'welcomed the battle' and in a thread of tweets posed four questions and implied that Huawei set its business in India during the Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee was the PM and that Dr. S Jaishankar, who was the Ambassador to China "supported Chinese investments in India". 

It is clear that the BJP's own Central Bureau of Innuendo (CBI) is now working overtime to malign me. I welcome the battle. Tweet on & be damned. Investigate all your charges & while you are at it also find out

1.Who was PM when Huawei set up its development centre in India?
1/n https://t.co/EsF9Q7R3bB

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh)