Ramesh, Jaitley engage in friendly banter

If there has been a trenchant critic of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Congress camp in the Rajya Sabha it is former Union minister and senior leader Jairam Ramesh. Ramesh, one of the 53 members who retired from the Rajya Sabha, in a brief farewell speech took a jibe at Jaitley, saying he was one of the top "spinners" in the government. "The Leader of the House is a master spinner of facts," he said, comparing Jaitley to cricket spinners. Ramesh's advice to Jaitley: "Stop spinning and start governing." When Ramesh alluded to something he thought former cricketer Vijay Merchant had said - "It is better to go when people ask why he is going rather than why he isn't going" - Jaitley, in his address, said he was "correcting his friend for the last time". Those words were spoken by Sunil Gavaskar, not Merchant, said Jaitley.