Ranchi, Sep 21 — BJP MP from Jharkhand's Godda, Nishikant Dubey, has said he will file a criminal defamation case against former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg for of making false statements about him during a recent podcast.
The controversy escalated after Garg, in the podcast, referred to an alleged meeting with Dubey during his tenure in the Finance Ministry and claimed that the MP had approached him regarding certain matters.
Rejecting the allegations, Dubey said he had never visited the office of any Central government secretary after becoming an MP in 2009 and had never written any recommendation letter seeking the transfer or posting of an official.
Speaking on Monday, Dubey said Garg had claimed in the podcast that the two had met in his office and that the MP had sought intervention in a transfer-related matter.
"The truth is that since being elected to Parliament in 2009, I have never gone to any secretary for such work. If Garg has any evidence of my visiting his office or making any recommendation, he should place it in the public domain," Dubey said.
The latest exchange comes amid an ongoing war of words between the two over India's first-quarter GDP growth rate of 7.8 per cent. Garg had recently questioned the GDP figures and the changes made in the methodology used for past GDP calculations. Dubey, in response, had sharply criticised the former bureaucrat.
In the podcast, Garg reportedly said that during his tenure as Finance Secretary, Dubey had approached him with certain files or matters, which he perceived as lobbying or advocacy on behalf of corporate interests.
Dubey dismissed the claim, reiterating that protocol places an MP above a Central government secretary and asserting that he had never visited any ministry to meet a Secretary.
He also maintained that he had never recommended the transfer or posting of any official.
Garg served as Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, from July 2017 to July 2019 and briefly held the position of Finance Secretary between March and June 2019. He was later transferred to the Ministry of Power before he opted for voluntary retirement.
Dubey said his differences with Garg were not new. He recalled that in 2018 he had written to the Prime Minister raising questions about Garg's economic policies and functioning while he was serving as Secretary, Economic Affairs.