The speech of Arun Jaitley at a Banker's conference, at odds with the Prime Minister's goals, gives rise to doubts about his health and fitness

Has Arun Jaitley, the former Finance Minister and recently indisposed Minister without Portfolio lost his mind? His speech from his Delhi official residence through video conferencing at a bankers function in Mumbai is bizarre and should be condemned. In his speech, Jaitley blamed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Maharashtra State Police for the recent arrests and actions against banking frauds. He also termed Prevention of Corruption Act as “badly drafted” law and demanded for the need of change[1].

Mr. Jaitley, take rest and get your old strength back. You must remember that this country is suffering from high profile banking frauds that happened during your term as well as your buddy former Finance Minister Chidambaram’s term. Surely you realize that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying his level best to fix the banking scamsters frauds that happened during your and your predecessor’s tenure. Take the Punjab National Bank (PNB) Scam of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali. The entire world is now aware that your daughter Sonali Jaitley’s law firm was the retainer of Gitanjali Group till December 2017.

The Finance Ministry during your tenure was aware of the PNB scam and Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi’s banking frauds as the Income Tax and Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) submitted their report in February 2017 after conducting nationwide raids on January 14, 2017. Finance Ministry never shared these explosive findings of DRI and Income Tax with CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or the Financial Intelligence Unit[2]. The details were shared only after 11 months after the fugitives left the country. This happened under your watch and you are responsible.

Mr. Jaitley, you should have advised these bankers to run the show legally and transparently rather than blaming the CBI and State Police officers who took the burden of probing the financial crimes. You also spoke against the Prevention of Corruption Act. We know the dilution of Prevention of Corruption Act is, was and has been a pet project of yours. You tried it once before – when you were the Law Minister in Vajpayee Government and the Supreme Court quashed it.

Are you bringing up this dilution of Prevention of Corruption Act to save your tainted buddy Chidambaram, who is wanted by the CBI for custodial interrogation and expected to be chargesheeted soon in Aircel-Maxis and INX Media bribe case?

Your mind always seems to work like that of a Devils’ Advocate or a Defence Lawyer appearing in a trial court to save the accused. You must always remember that you are a Minister, even if it is without a Portfolio. And you owe this post to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who accommodated you in the Cabinet despite you losing with a margin of around two lakh votes from Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 election when almost all candidates of BJP have won.

Here is a piece of unsolicited advice – take care and try to get well soon. Take good rest. Don’t poke into Finance Ministry’s affairs. Let the new Finance Minister Piyush Goyal work hard. Despite your cutting funding to them, the CBI is doing a fine job, going after errant bankers.

References:

[1] Arun Jaitley speaks out agains arrest of bankers – Jul 4, 2018, LiveMint.com

[2] Is Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia shielding PNB scamsters Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi? Mar 21, 2018, PGurus.com