Under attack, FM cuts short China visit

New Delhi, June 27

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has cut short his visit to China by a day and returned here in the wake of attacks on him and top officials of his ministry by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy.

Jaitley, who began a five-day visit to China on June 24 primarily to attend the first meeting of the Board of Governors of the $100-billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, returned here last night. He was to meet Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei today but the meeting took place yesterday itself.

His other engagements, including meetings with National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Xu Shaoshi and People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, scheduled for today were also advanced to allow him to return to India last night.

Officials did not give any reason for Jaitley cutting short his visit by a day. But it came amid reports that he was unhappy with Swamy’s attacks that had also covered Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and was keen that the party act to rein him in. — PTI