Arun Jaitley set to resume as Finance Minister after three-month long hiatus

Union Minister Arun Jaitley was conferred as the Finance Minister by Prime Minister Modi on July 2014. In May 2018 he underwent a renal transplant and because of which he had temporarily stepped down from the elite post and was on the path of recovery since then. Jaitley will reportedly be back at his North Block office later this month after a three-month-long hiatus, people familiar with the matter said.

Jaitley underwent a renal transplant in mid-May during which Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, held charge of the office in his absence. Jaitley’s office housed on the first-floor corner in North Block is being renovated and sanitised so as to protect the minister against infection, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Sources also informed that Jaitley’s three-month quarantine period, prescribed by doctors, will end by mid-August.

Jaitley, on social media, has actively taken on opposition parties to writing on issues including cuts to the goods and services tax rates, in the last few weeks. Arun Jaitley operated by holding video conferences with officials and addressed events remotely, prompting the opposition to ask who India’s finance minister was.

Then the opposition reasoned, that they took to social media to address the question of who the finance minister of India was after the apparently unsatisfactory response given by Piyush Goyal previously that Jaitley would resume office after his health allowed him to.

https://t.co/PrQSfxIVtE Who is FM of India ? PMO’s Website says it is @PiyushGoyal & Arun Jaitley is Minister without portfolio & Finance Ministries Website says it is @arunjaitley. @narendramodi who is your FM Sir? https://t.co/H0dgOnmWKx

— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) June 15, 2018

Union Minister Arun Jaitley returned home after a three-week stay at Delhi’s AIIMS hospital due to his renal transplant being done there. Jaitley had previously taken to Twitter and have thanked his doctors, the nurses, and paramedics who took care of him at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Delighted to be back at Home. My gratitude to the Doctors, Nursing officers and the paramedics who looked after me for over the past three weeks. I wish to thank all well-wishers, colleagues and friends who were very concerned and continued to wish me for my recovery.

— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) June 4, 2018

Also Read: Congress takes jibe at Arun Jaitley, asks him to write a Facebook post