New Delhi: Amid attacks on him and top officials of his ministry by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has cut short his visit to China by a day and returned to New Delhi.
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 USD 100-billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), returned to India last night.
He was scheduled to meet China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei today, but the meeting had already taken place yesterday.
His other engagements, which included meetings with National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Xu Shaoshi and People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan had also taken place, allowing Jaitley to return to India last night.
Officials did not give any reason for Jaitley rescheduling his meetings and cutting his visit short by a day. But it came amid reports that he was unhappy with Subramanian Swamy's attacks.
Swamy's has also attacked Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.
A section of BJP is reportedly believes that attacks on Jaitley are undermining his position in the government and action should be taken against Swamy.
