In a two-page letter, Vyas drew Mahajan's attention to the reported statement by Maneka Gandhi doubting the benefits of dams and calling for a cost-benefit analysis of the dam on Narmada river. The Gujarat minister has also objected to Gandhi expressing doubts whether the Narmada project would provide drinking water to Saurashtra.

"The parliamentary system of Government calls for joint responsibility from each member of the Cabinet. No member of the Cabinet, therefore, can take a public posture on an issue in a way which is diametrically opposite to the stand taken by Government of India in a legal dispute being heard by the Supreme Court," said Vyas in the letter.

The Narmada Minister said Gandhi had spoken on an issue which did not pertain to her area of responsibility, and "her statement on the Narmada issue has come when the Supreme Court is seized of the entire matter, sending wrong signals on the issue. Union Ministers should abstain from airing their views on such controversial subjects, particularly when they pertain to a department other than their own".

The minister urged Mahajan to persuade Maneka Gandhi to abstain from making such statements, especially when the Gujarat Chief Minister has taken up the matter separately with the Prime Minister. In the letter, Vyas reminded the Union Minister how the apex court had, on October 15, come down heavily on the Narmada Bachao Andolan and its leaders, Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy, for distorting facts and scandalising the court proceedings by misusing the freedom of speech.

"Maneka Gandhi's utterances are in fact entirely based on the views propagated by NBA whose sole objective is to stop the dam by using whatever mechanism suits them," he said.