Finance minister Arun Jaitley criticized for his Facebook post
When a Facebook post suggested that the finance minister might be pondering less things than the threat of the tough measures in the Indian government’s first budget next week, anger was stirred amongs many. Now what was the post by Arun Jaitley?
The post stated “this day is celebrated to raise awareness about the existence of UFO’s and with that intelligent beings from outer space,” which was followed by Jaitley’s name and included a depiction of a flying saucer in a wheat field. The message was published to celebrate “World UFO Day,” which is dedicated to spotting and proving the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects. It was first celebrated in 2001, according to the website worldofuday.com.
A member of Jaitley’s personal staff, who declined to be named, confirmed that their team had posted the message about World UFO Day and said the account had not been hacked. The post sparked a storm of criticism among his followers and was deleted after a few hours.
In reference to India’s recent moves to raise rail fares and fuel prices, a Facebook user commented on Jaitely’s post saying, “Sir FM, today we the people of India are celebrating the price hike day instead of UFO day.” Another Facebook user commented, “Sir instead of talking on outer space, please confine your discussion on the hardship faced by common men. People are confused and scared about the undefined miseries which are going to heaped upon them in the names of restoring fiscal health of the country.”
Denisha Sahadevan
