Outgoing Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has opted out of the next Narendra Modi government to be sworn in tomorrow. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was posted on social media by Arun Jaitley, he requested that he should not be included in the new Government.
Jaitley has written that he has faced some serious health challenges in the last eighteen months, and his doctors have enabled him to emerge out of most of them. He says that after the end of the election campaign, he had orally informed Modi that although he was able to discharge the responsibilities assigned to him during the campaign, he would like to keep away from any responsibility in the future for some time.
Now Arun Jaitley has formally made the request to not be included in the new Modi government, which would enable him to concentrate on his treatment and health. He has written, “I am writing to you to formally request you that I should be allowed a reasonable time for myself, my treatment and my health and. therefore, not be a part of any responsibility, for the present, in the new Government.” Jaitley adds that he will obviously have a lot of time at his disposal to undertake any work informally to support the Government or the Party.
I have today written a letter to the Hon’ble Prime Minister, a copy of which I am releasing: pic.twitter.com/8GyVNDcpU7
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) May 29, 2019
After the massive victory of NDA in the elections, several sections in media had speculated that Arun Jaitley may not be the finance minister, or not even be a part of the new government, due to health issues. But the government had denied those reports as false and baseless and had asked the media not to indulge in rumour mongering.
It may be noted that Arun Jaitley didn’t present the last budget of the government due to health issues, and it was presented by railway minister Piyush Goyal, who was given the additional charge of Finance and Corporate Affairs ministries ahead of the budget in January this year.
