New Delhi: The government on Sunday said reports on the deteriorating health of outgoing Finance Minister Arun Jaitley are false and baseless, and media should steer clear of rumour mongering. Amid the buzz on Jaitley’s health, government spokes-person Sitanshu Kar took to twitter to clear the air. While Jaitley remained unreachable, his office said he is resting at home. Sources aware of his condition had on Friday stated that Jaitley is unlikely to be part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet in the second term due to his ill health, which may require him to travel to either the UK or the US for treatment. Jaitley, 66, has become “very weak”, they had said. He was admitted at AIIMS last week to undergo
tests and treatment for an undisclosed illness and was discharged on Thursday but did not attend celebrations at BJP headquarters that evening after the party’s emphatic victory in general elections. Jaitley’s college friend and media baron Rajat Sharma also took to twitter to dispel rumours. “Everyone is discussing my friend @arunjaitley’s health, some out of genuine concern and some for loose talk. Let me share with you that I met him last evening, he is recovering well and is working behind the scenes. Friends and family have convinced him to stay away from public interaction to avoid infection. I am glad he has finally agreed.”
Jaitley, whose health has been on a decline ever since he underwent a kidney transplant in May last year, will take a call in the next few days on the issue. He has not attended office for the last three weeks and has rarely been seen in public. He, however, has been writing blogs and tweeted on Modi’s victory Thursday. He neither attended the Cabinet meeting called Friday that recommended dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha, nor the Saturday meeting of the BJP parliamentary party that elected Modi as its leader.
Sources said that he, however, met all the five secretaries in his ministries at his residence on Friday in what was described as a routine meeting. He had undergone surgery in the US on January 22 for a reported soft tissue cancer in his left leg, an illness that prevented him from presenting the Modi government’s sixth and final budget of its current term. Jaitley had returned to India on February 9 after undergoing skin grafting. He is believed to have undergone some kind of a medical procedure again when he last month visited the US. Earlier in September 2014, he underwent bariatric surgery to correct the weight he had gained because of a long-standing diabetic condition.
