New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has strongly denied quotes attributed to her by a report in The Print where she is quoted as snubbing industrialists and saying "I dont understand Bombay people".
In an astonishing turn of events, Sitharaman went on to ask, "if this is parody or calumny" and said the quotes attributed to her by The Print are not hers. "Is this parody? If not and if serious, this is calumny. The quotes attributed to me are not mine," the Finance Minister said in a tweet early on Saturday.
Attached with her tweet is a report in The Print titled, "Why Nirmala Sitharaman doesn't understand 'Bombay people'".
According to the report in The Print, at a post-Budget interaction with the captains of industry in Mumbai last week, she was confronted with probing questions on the rationale and impact of the continuance of the long-
term capital gains tax as also the abolition of the dividend distribution tax.
The report said that at one point, she snubbed an eminent participant, who is known as the doyen of investment banking in India, saying, "I have done everything for you. What more do you want now?"