Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has cut short his visit to China by a day and returned in the wake of attacks on him and top officials of his ministry by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy.
Jaitley, who began a five-day visit to China on June 24 primarily to attend the first meeting of the Board of Governors of the $100-billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), returned last night.
He was to meet Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei on Monday, but the meeting was held on Sunday itself.
His other engagements including meetings with National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Xu Shaoshi and People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan scheduled for Monday, were also advanced to allow him to return to India last night.
Officials did not give any reason for Jaitley cutting short his visit by a day. But it came amid reports that he was unhappy with Swamy's attacks that had also covered Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and was keen that the party act to rein him.