On Saturday, Union Minister Arun Jaitley returned from the United States where he was undergoing medical treatment. “Delighted to be back home,” Jaitley tweeted.
Jaitley missed presenting the sixth and final Budget of the Narendra Modi government before the general elections. Arun Jaitley was the Finance Minister before a medical procedure led to the charge being temporarily taken away from him. In his absence, the charge of the ministry was given to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal. However, Jaitley has been active on social media tweeting and writing Facebook posts and had also met reporters through a video call from New York and fielded questions on the Budget. He had also given interviews on the subject.
In an interview after the Budget presentation, Jaitley said he was on recovery course and his return to India in time to give reply to the Budget debate in Parliament depends on when his doctors allow him to leave. “It depends on my treatment here, which is all over. I am on the recovery course. It when my doctors allow me to go back. As of present, as I understand, Piyush Goyal will be replying (to the Budget debate in Parliament)”, he said.
The Budget session of Parliament ends on February 13, and debate on the Interim Budget has been taken up in the Lok Sabha.
Jaitley, last month flew to New York for the treatment after being reportedly diagnosed with soft tissue cancer which required surgery. This was his first overseas visit after he underwent renal transplant surgery on May 14, 2018, at AIIMS.