Kejriwal and Arun Jaitely to Share Stage Today
KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Global Business Summit that starts in Kolkata today may have pulled off at least one political coup.
On day one of the two-day summit today, Union Minister Arun Jaitley and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are lined up to speak at the plenary session.
Ties between the two leaders have been under strain over allegations of massive financial bungling and fraud in Delhi cricket body, the Delhi and District Cricket Association or the DDCA. Mr Jaitley headed the body from 1999 to 2013.
Mr Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have alleged that Mr Jaitley presided over corruption in the DDCA and a CBI raid last month on a Delhi bureaucrat was the cover for an attempt to save the Finance Minister.
Mr Jaitley, who has rubbished AAP’s allegations, has filed a defamation case against Mr Kejriwal and other AAP leaders. The union minister says Mr Kejriwal came up with the allegations to deflect attentions from the raid. His party says he was non-executive president and not involved with the day-to-day administration of the organization.
Mr Jaitley apart, three other speakers at the plenary session after the inauguration of the summit today include Nitin Gadkari, Suresh Prabhu and Piyush Goyal – key ministers in the Narendra Modi government. Industry leaders from across the country have also been invited.
Mr Jaitley was keynote speaker at the summit last year too. Mr Gadkari had also attended. This is the second time that the summit is being hosted by Ms Banerjee.
Providing the summit the global touch are Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Bangladesh’s minister of commerce Tofail Ahmed and UK’s minister of state for employment, Priti Patel.
