New Delhi, Dec. 24: Arun Jaitley has taken on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for calling Narendra Modi a "psychopath" and a "coward", reminding him that "vulgarity is not a right" available to "people in positions".
In a Facebook blog posted today, the finance minister said: "If any functionary of the Government of India were to use such language, it would witness a nationwide outrage. People in positions are expected to act with restraint. They cannot be outlandish. Vulgarity is not a right available to them... lumpenisation of public discourse can never be a high point of politics."
Kejriwal had attacked the Prime Minister using the words after last week's CBI raid on the office of his principal secretary.
In his blog, titled "Stray Thoughts after the Winter Session", Jaitley suggested the Congress was going the way of Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in adopting vulgarity in its political discourse.
"The AAP's success in Delhi seems to have misled the Congress party that vulgarity brings votes. Indian public opinion has a sense of fairness. It is time that public opinion expresses its outrage against the lowering of the level of public discourse."
The finance minister also claimed that the effects of BJP president Amit Shah's censure of some party ministers and MPs in October over intemperate statements on the Dadri lynching and beef-eating were "visible". "Some months ago, a few members of the BJP made statements which were not appreciated even by the party. The party president cautioned them.... The result of the caution are visible," Jaitley wrote.
Shah had summoned Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Union minister Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Lok Sabha MP Sakshi Maharaj and Uttar Pradesh MLA Sangeet Som and reportedly ticked them off. None has said anything controversial in public since.
Khattar had been rapped for saying in an interview that "Muslims can continue to live in this country but they will have to give up eating beef because the cow is an article of faith here". Maharaj, the MP from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, had sought the death penalty for cow killings, while Balyan had described the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaque in Dadri as a "spontaneous act".
Jaitley also dwelt on the washed-out winter session of Parliament that ended yesterday, criticising the Congress for undermining the mechanism of the standing committee that vets bills and proposes amendments.
"The standing committee mechanism, which worked exceedingly well since 1993, has been weakened in the Rajya Sabha by the House repeatedly appointing select committees, questioning the opinions of the standing committee. If this tendency continues, a successful institution like the standing committee could be hurt."
The finance minister said that it was for this reason that the government resorted to the alternative of a joint committee to consider legislation on bankruptcy.
He said the government "did not prefer" other options, like passing bills without sending them to a standing committee or drafting laws to fit them into the definition of money bills. The Rajya Sabha cannot hold up a money bill once the Lok Sabha has passed it.
Jaitley signalled unease at the passage of several bills in the last two days of the just-concluded session without discussion and debate. "How far is it desirable to pass important legislations on the last day without discussion? Statistically, we have passed a law. But has Parliament applied its mind to the law?" he asked.
