 "I will be a better FM than Jaitley: Subramanian Swamy")
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy believes he will be a better finance minister than the incumbent Arun Jaitley.
"I am an economist. He is a lawyer. How can he be better than me?" Swamy, whose antagonism for Jaitley is open, said at an event in New Delhi on Saturday.
Swamy was replying to a query on whether he will make a better finance minister than Jaitley at the India Today Mind Rocks Summit.
Swamy's relentless criticism of the former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan was also seen as indirect attack on Jaitley.
The reply came following All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi's comment that inflation would have been in check had Swamy been the finance minister.
"There has been a fight between southern Brahmins and northern Brahmins for long," Swamy later quipped.
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On being asked by the moderator whether BJP has imposed a gag on him, Swamy took again a jibe at Jaitley, saying, "There is no gag order on me. Your problem is that you talk to Jaitley a lot."
Asked whether he will fare better than the Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Swamy said, "Rajnath is my friend. He is the best Home Minister after Sardar Patel."