'Unfair, false attack on a disciplined civil servant': Jaitley defends Arvind Subramanian

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday reiterated his support to Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, presently under fire from BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, and dubbed it to be an unfair and false attack on a disciplined civil servant.

"An unfair and false attack on a disciplined civil servant in the Finance Ministry," Jaitley said in a tweet.

Stating that politicians should be disciplined in making attacks on officials whose offices constrain them from responding, the Finance Minister yesterday said the BJP-led government has full confidence in the Chief Economic Adviser.

Swamy, the newly nominated Rajya Sabha MP, had earlier in a series of tweets demanded that the Chief Economic Advisor be sacked for what he called his "anti-India stance" on economic issues during his stints in Washington at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and at the Center for Global Development.

"Who said to US Cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US Pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian MoF !! Sack him!!!," he tweeted.

Swamy's outburst against the Chief Economic Advisor came just days after he took on RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.