Congress leader Manish Tewari on Monday cited information on the PMO and finance ministry websites and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clear the ‘ambiguity’ around the person in charge of the finance ministry — Arun Jaitley or Piyush Goyal.
The Congress party on June 18 asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify whether Arun Jaitley is Union Minister of Finance, as per the Finance Ministry website, or whether Piyush Goyal is Union Minister of Finance, as per the Prime Minister’s Office website.
Referring to the information available on PMO and ministry of finance websites, Tewari asked: “Who is finance minister of India? PMO’s website says one thing, finance ministry website tells another story. The gentleman designated without portfolio on PMO website is holding meetings via video conference. PM needs to tell country who is his finance minister.”
Addressing a press conference at AICC headquarters in Delhi, Congress spokesperson and former Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari also asked the Prime Minister to answer some fundamental questions about the economy of India under his tenure.
On May 14, Piyush Goyal was given additional charge of finance ministry following the medical treatment of Arun Jaitley. Jaitley underwent a successful kidney transplant at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) later that month. During the period of indisposition of Jaitley, the portfolios of minister of finance and minister of corporate affairs held by him were temporarily assigned to Goyal, in addition to his existing portfolios, a communique from the President’s office stated.
Tewari further said that in 2009 alone, after the global economic meltdown, the UPA II government had created 1 million jobs, but the Narendra Modi Government had hardly created 2.5 lakh jobs per year, despite promising to create 2 crore jobs. Tewari said that not having clarification on who exactly was the Finance Minister of India during a time of economic difficulty, reflects a sad state of governance.
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