Jaitley mocks Rahul Gandhi in Facebook post; questions his maturity level

New Delhi, March 2:Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley took a dig at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in a Facebook post on Wednesday, in which he questioned the latter's level of maturity.

Taunting Rahul over his claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hardly consults his senior ministers, Jaitley said: "If Shri Rahul Gandhi is to be believed, then Smt. Sushma Swaraj is not consulted on the Pakistan policy, Shri Rajnath Singh was unware of the Nagaland accord and, presumably, I am unware of the Budget proposals."

"As one evolves from a young to a middle-aged one, we certainly expect a certain level of maturity. The more I hear Shri Rahul Gandhi, the more I start wondering "how much does he know - when will he know"," Jaitley wrote in his post which was liked by over 19,000 people and shared over 4,200 times at the time of writing this article.

The Union finance minister said the prime minister is the natural leader of the party and government in the NDA but it was different when the UPA was in power.

"The Prime Minister is to lead by example. The present Prime Minister not only works hard and involves himself in the functioning of the various departments of the government, but inspires his team to work harder than we would have normally. Each one of us, whether the External Affairs Minister, Home Minister or myself, are responsible for each important decision taken by each of one departments. We do not by-pass the Prime Minister who is always available for consultation and guidance. After hearing Shri Rahul Gandhi, I think India has made the right choice between the Prime Minister who leads the Government and a Prime Minister who is merely implementing decisions taken elsewhere," Jaitley's post said.

The senior BJP leader also lashed out at the Congress, saying it had evolved into "a crowd around a family" and the UPA model of governance saw a prime minister from outside the family reduced into a figurehead.

"Given a choice between a ‘hands-on' Prime Minister or a ‘nominal' head, I would unhesitatingly choose the former," he said.

Rahul had launched on a frontal attack on PM Modi during a debate in the Lok Sabha, saying the "The Prime Minister cannot run the country on only his opinion. The country is not the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is not the country."

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