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BFF-31
INDIA-ECONOMY-POLITICS-JAITLEY
India’s ailing finance minister quits government
NEW DELHI, May 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – India’s influential but ailing
finance minister Arun Jaitley announced Wednesday that he would not serve in
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new Hindu nationalist government because of
poor health.
Modi is set to be sworn in Thursday after winning a second landslide
election and should name his new cabinet shortly after.
Jaitley, 66, a key member of the last government, said in a letter to Modi
he released on Twitter that he would “like to keep away from any
responsibility” so he could concentrate on his health and treatment.
Jaitley underwent a kidney transplant in May last year and in February
travelled to the United States for surgery after being diagnosed with cancer.
“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,” he added
in the letter.
Jaitley also hailed the “spectacular win” of Modi’s right Bharatiya Janata
Party in the six-week election that ended last week.
The BJP swept 303 of the 542 contested parliamentary seats to win a second
five-year term.
A lawyer-turned-politician, Jaitley guided the government’s rollout of a
complex nationwide tax and often acted as a spokesman on contentious issues.
Railways minister Piyush Goyal, who stepped in for Jaitley to present an
interim budget in February, and BJP president Amit Shah are in contention for
Jaitley’s job, media reports said.
India is the world’s sixth largest economy and although it has been
growing at about seven percent a year, it is showing signs of a slowdown.
Modi, 68, has invited the heads of countries who are in the Bay of Bengal
Initiative for Maritime and Economic Co-operation (BIMSTEC) to the swearing-
in.
India’s archrival neighbour Pakistan is not a part of the alliance and so
Modi avoided inviting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.
BSS/AFP/RY/1605 hrs