Subramanian Swamy denies targeting Arun Jaitley, says he looks very smart in a coat

New Delhi: BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who has been indirectly targeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the past few days, on Saturday denied attacking his party colleague.

Swamy said reports that he had been targeting Jaitley are all “rumours”.

“If I want to target someone, I do it openly. In fact, Mr Jaitley looks very smart in a coat,” Swamy said, in reference to his earlier remarks on the wardrobe of ministers.

The Rajya Sabha MP had said earlier this week that ministers who wear a coat and tie “look like waiters” and must be instructed to wear Indian clothes.

With his coat and waiter remark, Swamy was apparently taking another swipe at Jaitley who wore a lounge suit for his engagements in Beijing this week and for his meeting with the Bank of China Chairman Tian Guoli.

Today's remarks followed reports that the party was angry with Swamy over his continuous attacks on the Finance Minister as well as top bureaucrats in the Finance Ministry.

Swamy denied that as well.

“All such reports are false. I am addressing party meetings,” Swamy said.

The BJP anger was visible after Swamy yesterday issued a veiled threat to those asking him to follow restraint saying that if he “disregarded discipline there will be a bloodbath”.

“People giving me unasked for advice of discipline and restraint don’t realise that if I disregard discipline there would be a bloodbath,” he had tweeted in an obvious attack on Arun Jaitley.

Swamy was obviously referring to the minister urging him to be restrained in the wake of his attacks on Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian on Wednesday, and to his use of the word ‘discipline’ in defending Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das on Thursday – another target of a personal attack by the BJP MP.

However, he today clarified on the use of the word "bloodbath" and said he did not intend the literal meaning of the word but only hinted at "chaos" which has not happened.

"I said I am the most disciplined person. If I was indisciplined, there would not be what they called as bloodshed. Bloodshed did not mean blood spilling. Bloodshed means there will be chaos. And I said that because I am disciplined, nothing of that kind happened," he told a press conference.

The BJP leader said his usage of the word was 'misunderstood' as everyone took the literal meaning of bloodshed.