Arun Jaitley, In US For Treatment, Attacks "Compulsive Contrarians"

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is out of the country for treatment but proved today that he was certainly not out of action. In a blog this morning, he ripped into the Congress, without naming its chief Rahul Gandhi, and slammed "compulsive contrarians" who have "no qualms about manufacturing falsehood".

Mr Jaitley left for the US on Tuesday, which set off speculation that he may be unable to present the interim budget on February 1, the government's last bid to have its expenses cleared as it seeks re-election in the national election due by May. Rahul Gandhi tweeted that he was "upset" to hear about Mr Jaitley's health and wished him speedy recovery.

"The Compulsive Contrarians had no qualms about manufacturing falsehood. They could concoct arguments even if they went against the general interest of the country. They could masquerade corruption as crusade. They could adopt double standards whenever it suited them," Mr Jaitley wrote today.

He went on to list "examples" like "the Justice BH Loya case, the Rafale case, the CBI issue, on judges and the RBI debate".

"Every fact alleged in the public space by the Compulsive Contrarians was manufactured," Mr Jaitley said on opposition allegations involving Judge BH Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin encounter killing case when he died of a cardiac arrest in 2014. BJP president Amit Shah, an accused in the killing, was discharged in the case.

"The Judge died a natural death due to a cardiac stroke...No outsiders had any contact, and yet on friendly websites, social media campaigns, fake PILs, wild insinuations were made. The cause of the death was sought to be altered into a conspiracy for murder," said the minister.

On the Rafale jet deal, which is at the core of Rahul Gandhi's corruption allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, Mr Jaitley wrote: "Though the Court verdict should have been final, the Contrarians did not stop. They again raised it in Parliament. They conclusively lost the debate in the Parliament and yet the falsehood has not stopped."

He said PM Modi "should be credited with saving thousands of crores of the country" with this deal.

"The right to campaign for stifling funds to the economy in the name of the autonomy (RBI), justifying corruption in the name of institutional independence, attacking Judges when the verdict is not favourable, manufacturing facts as in the case of Judge Loya's death and the Rafale deal are indicative of the mindset of the Compulsive Contrarians," Mr Jaitley wrote.

He likened attacks on the government with "Left-liberals finding fault with actions Mahatma Gandhi took during the freedom movement".

Disclaimer: NDTV has been sued for 10,000 crores by Anil Ambani's Reliance Group for its coverage of the Rafale deal