Jaitley wants BJP to act against Swamy's friendly fire tirade

A look at all the attacks that the BJP leader has made against finance ministry officials

After BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s indirect attacks on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the latter has sought the party’s intervention to ensure that he and the ministry are not targeted again. 

A section of the party feels that Jaitley’s position is being undermined and that the attacks from Swamy must stop, The Indian Express reported. 

In the past few weeks, Swamy has launched tirade of attacks on bureaucrats in the Finance Ministry. Here’s a look at all that he has said about these officials. 

Raghuram Rajan

The first major casualty of his attacks on people in the Finance Ministry was the Reserve Bank of India Governor. 

The Rajya Sabha MP, in May 2016, wrote to the Prime Minister stating that he was not mentally fully Indian and that his policies had done more harm to the Indian economy. Swamy pointed that Rajan’s high interest rate regime in the RBI led to small and medium industry suffering. 

The finance ministry and the party stayed away from the issue and refrained from issuing statements any statements in response.  His term was set to end in September. 

Eventually, on June 18, Rajan announced that he will be returning to academia and not continue with the central bank. 

Arvind Subramanian

Swamy took to micro-blogging site Twitter to take on Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian. He outlined how the CEA had taken an anti-India stance during his stint at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

Arvind had allegedly advised the US to arm twist India to adopt to certain policies, Swamy alleged. 

The Centre’s response in this case was far more active. Jaitley came out in support of the CEA and stated that he had full confidence in the bureaucrat. “His advice to the government from time to time has been of great value,” he added. Along with backing him, he also cautioned Swamy on not attacking officials whose office demands discipline. 

Shaktikanta Das

Continuing with his list of attacks in the friendly fire mode, Swamy last week took a veiled dig at the Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das. In a response to a tweet that demanded sacking of Das, Swamy pointed to a possible case against Das in Tamil Nadu for helping P Chidambaram ‘swallow’ real estate in prime localities in Mahabalipuram. 

Jaitley tweeted in support of Das and called the attack unfair. 

Arun Jaitley

Though not very direct, the attacks have reportedly been done to target FM Jaitley. Apart from these, he also attacked him directly after he defended Arvind Subramanian.

 “Jaitleyji kya bole, kya nahi bole iss se mujhe kya lena dena (What do I have to do with what Jaitley said or did not say). I speak to Prime Minister and the (BJP) party president when required,” he told reporters last week. 

Swamy came into limelight recently after he was elevated as a Rajya Sabha member, which, according to reports, was done to have enough firepower in the Upper House. Soon after, he directly attacked Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, along with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. 

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma, had then said that Swamy was a loose cannon and that it will backfire like it did in case of Atal Behari Vajpayee and the RSS. In the past, Swamy had called Vajpayee drunk. 

While the leader has maintained his constant attacks on the Gandhi family, the recent instances of friendly fire may are proving to be an even bigger headache for the party.