New Delhi, Sep 7 (PTI) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was at his witty best today as he recalled his long association with his party colleague Hardeep Singh Puri at the launch of a book authored by the former diplomat.
Noting that their friendship goes back 46 years, Jaitley praised Puri and joked that he was exactly like what is often said about a “good Sikh”.
“A good Sikh, when he loses, he behaves like a winner and when he wins, he behaves like God. That sums up Hardeeps personality,” he said as the audience erupted in loud applause.
He recalled that both involved in various academic and non-academic activities in Delhi University together.
Noting that Puri was always interested in public affairs, Jaitley mentioned that on one cold winter night of 1980 when the BJP was losing everywhere except in New Delhi where Atal Bihari Vajpayee won, he found his friend outside with a scooter.
“Our supporters were not seen. So when on a cold winter night I went there, the only other person I found familiar there was scooter…Hardeep Puri, an Under Secretary then. So we drove it from there together,” he said at the launch of the book Perilous Interventions.
When Puri spoke later, he corrected Jaitley saying he had upgraded from a scooter to a Honda car in 1980.
“In 1980, when we were outside a polling booth, it was outside Modern School, (Jaitley quips it was counting day)… it was counting booth, I had come back from my first posting and graduated from a two-wheeler scooter into a little Honda car. So I drove you from there to Pandara road, a restaurant where we had dinner before you proceeded home,” he said.