Batting for his government while being out of commission for medical treatment in US, union minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday lambasted Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge for dissenting yet again when the high-powered collegium chose RK Shukla as the new CBI director.

Taking a strong view of the development in his blog post, Jaitley, said the "only constant in the high-powered committee...which deals with the CBI director's appointment and transfer, is the Kharge dissent", adding that Kharge was made a part of the collegium despite Congress losing the post of leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha on account of getting less than 10 per cent seats in the 2014 elections. Jaitley also advised him to shed his political colour at the time of appointing or transferring the Director on the criterion of merit or fairness.

Making a strong pitch for the Interim Budget presented on January 1 by Piyush Goyal in his place, Jaitley indicated that his return could be delayed and he may not be there to reply to debate on the Budget. He also justified the absence of any major mention of job creation in the Budget, saying such budgets are different from the normal Budget speeches as they are more like "a report card and a road map." "Why is it that India, in the last five years, hasn't seen a major social or political agitation? If there is no job creation, there will be discontent. Where is that visible?" he said, adding, it is not as if "suddenly in five years the productivity levels in India have gone up that all organisations are now running with half their staff. The empirical evidence is to the contrary."

Strongly defending the government's proposal to directly give Rs 6,000 per year to marginal farmers that has been criticised by Rahul Gandhi as a paltry amount of Rs 17 a day per family, Jaitley hinted that the cash dole may be increased in the near future as the government's resources grow. He even made a case of states to top up this amount with their own income support schemes.

Criticising Gandhi , Jaitley said he must "grow up" and realise that he is contesting a national election and not a college union poll.

POLL SPEAK

• Reminded Kharge he was made a part of the collegium despite Congress losing the post of leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha   
• Also justified absence of major mention of job creation in Budget, saying such budgets are more like “a report card”

(With agency inputs)