Arun Jaitley attacks opposition leaders, calls them compulsive contrarians

Jaitley is currently out of India for treatment.

In blog post, Jaitley said: "There are some in the political system who thought that they were born to rule. There are those who had managed to penetrate into positions of influence irrespective of the Government in power. Some who were part of the ideological left and the ultra-left obviously found the new Government wholly unacceptable. Hence emerged a new class of Compulsive Contrarians."

"The Contrarians believed that this Government could do no good. Every act of it must be opposed. They picked holes in the proposal to give 10% reservation in education and public jobs to the poor, compelling me to comment in the Lok Sabha that this was the first illustration in history where the Communists were obstructing a step taken to support the poor. Steps taken against black money were described as 'Tax Terrorism'," he said.

Attacking the Congress party for targeting the Narendra Modi government over numerous issues, including the Rafale deal, in recent times, Jaitley said: "Slogans which championed the breaking-up of this country into pieces was defended as free speech. The successful surgical strikes conducted by the Army were questioned either as a routine or as a dubious process."

"The Compulsive Contrarians had no qualms about manufacturing falsehood. They could concoct arguments even if they went against the general interest of the country. They could masquerade corruption as crusade. They could adopt double standards whenever it suited them," he said.

Jibe comes a day after Rahul Gandhi wishes Arun Jaitley:

Keeping aside all political antagonism, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday sent love to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is recuperating from a kidney ailment.

Rahul tweeted saying, "I'm upset to hear Arun Jaitley Ji is not well. We fight him on a daily basis for his ideas. However, I and the Congress party send him our love and best wishes for a speedy recovery. We are with you and your family 100% during this difficult period Mr Jaitley."

Jaitley, who had undergone renal transplant surgery last year, flew to the US on Sunday for medical check-up. He is not likely to present the budget in the Lok Sabha on Feb 1.

A glimpse of Rahul-Jaitley political fight:

Inside and outside the parliament, Rahul and Jaitley, who is a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, were seen exchanging bitter words over issues like the controversial Rafale deal.

Recently the Congress chief had called Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Jan 1 interview with a news agency a "staged" in the course of a discussion in the parliament.

In reply, Jaitley took to Twitter to slam the opposition leader for attacking the editor of the news agency, calling Rahul the "grandson of the emergency dictator" with a reference to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who had called national emergency way back in 1975.