Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addresses the media over the allegations made by Congress against PM Modi's new ministers.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday rubbished as "baseless," a series of allegations made by the opposition Congress against several new ministers inducted into the Narendra Modi cabinet, and hit back with a taunt.
"Who should be taken into Cabinet is prerogative of the Prime Minister. In the UPA, the PM didn't have the last word in formation or expansion of the cabinet. In the NDA, the trend is completely different. The PM has the last word and he takes a decision taking into consideration all facts," Mr Jaitley, who is also the new Information and Broadcasting minister, said.
He emphasised that Prime Minister Modi had "checked credentials of each who was sworn in."
The Congress' Ajay Maken has accused the PM of including "tainted ministers in the government in contrast to his election rhetoric of ridding Parliament of criminals."
He targeted new ministers like TDP's YS Chowdary and the BJP's Ram Shankar Katheria, Giriraj Singh and JP Nadda and claimed that with the induction of what he called controversial new ministers yesterday, "the number of tainted ministers has gone up to 15 or 16 out of the 66."
Mr Jaitley countered each of Mr Maken's accusations dismissively. On the Congress' allegation that new minister from Uttar Pradesh Ram Shankar Katheria has a record of 23 cases against him, Mr Jaitley said, "All BJP members in UP has criminal cases against them by state government; they are political cases, not due to moral turpitude issues."
Such charges, he said, were not expected from a national party, adding, "It seems the Congress is not left with political issues."