Jairam Ramesh leaked letter written by Sonia to PM to the media: Baru in book

New DelhiJairam Ramesh union minister of rural development owed his loyalty like did many other ministers only to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and not to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in UPAI He even leaked a letter written by Sonia Gandhi to the prime minister to the media in order to embarrass the prime minister according to the book by Sanjaya Baru former media advisor to Manmohan SinghPrime minister Manmohan Singh with Sanjaya Baru File picBaru writes that ldquoFor Congress MPs the leader to please was always Sonia They did not see loyalty to the PM as a political necessity nor did Dr Singh seek loyalty in the way in which Sonia and her aides sought it That Jairamrsquos loyalty was only with Sonia became clearer within weeks of his becoming a minister when he chose to embarrass the PM by leaking a letter that Sonia had written to Dr Singh cautioning him against pursuing an initiative he valued a lotmdashthe free trade agreement FTA with member countries of the ASEANldquoDr Singh viewed the IndiaASEAN FTA as an important geo political initiative and aimed at Indiarsquos economic integration into the rapidly growing Asian economiesrdquo writes Baru in his book ldquoThe Accidental Prime Minister The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singhrdquo Penguin that hit the stands FridaySoniarsquos letter written at the behest of the Congress party in Kerala was to convey the concerns of plantation workers that the FTA with ASEAN would hurt their interestsBaru writes that it was ldquonot normal practice for Sonia to write such formal letters to the PM She almost always conveyed serious concerns orally and directly or through intermediaries like Ahmed Patel and Pulok Chatterjee However since she had written Dr Singh too responded in writing defending the FTA He wroteldquoA few weeks later Soniarsquos con dential letter to the PM found its way into the media with the Business Standard carrying a frontpage story A furious Dr Singh asked me to nd out who had leaked itrdquoBaru says he asked the paperrsquos editor TN Ninan who declined to reveal the ldquoidentity of a privileged news source However a journalist in the know con rmed Jairam Rameshrsquos role I reported this back to Dr Singh who picked up the phone and reprimanded Jairam even as the latter denied any role in the leakrdquoBaru also said Manmohan Singh ldquonever questioned Soniarsquos right as party president to inuence portfolio allocations though over time he became quite forthcoming in giving his opinions and she did accept his advice ldquoldquoWhile I knew it was not realistic to argue that Dr Singh should have full control over ministerial appointments I felt he needed to assert himself at least in the allocation of portfolios to junior ministers and would press him when I got the chancerdquoIn 2005 Baru says when the prime minister asked him whether he thought Jairam Ramesh should be inducted into government rdquoI replied that Jairam ought to be more demonstrative of his loyalty to the PM if he wanted a berth in the ministryrdquoBaru says a few days later he was asked by Montek Singh Ahluwalia why he was opposing Jairamrsquos inductionBaru says he told Montek that he had told the PM ldquothat at least younger Congress MPs should feel they owed their ministerial berths to the PM rather than just to SoniardquoIn the following month ldquoJairam did get inducted as a minister of state in the commerce ministry I was not surprised to learn that Jairam later called on Soniarsquos friend Suman Dubey and thanked him for the jobrdquo he says in the bookThe revelations in the book by an insider of Sonia being the actual power centre and of the prime minister being shorn of any real authority are bound to cause more harm to the Congressrsquos fortunes coming as it does during the general elections when the Congress partyrsquos electoral fortunes are seen as on the downswing