Statecraft would have solved Army Chief row

Jaitley interacted with top business leaders,investment bankers,marketing and advertising professionals and writers for nearly two hours at the Olive Bar and Kitchen. The interaction was moderated by Shekhar Gupta,Editor-in-Chief of the Express Group and M K Venu,Managing Editor of The Financial Express.

Among the guests at the Adda were HDFC Bank MD Aditya Puri,HCC chairman and MD Ajit Gulabchand,DSP Blackrock chairman Hemendra Kothari,Star India CEO Uday Shankar,BJP MP Piyush Goyal,former SBI chairman O P Bhatt,JM Financial promoter Nimesh Kampani,marketing strategist Rama Bijapurkar,Singapore consul-general Lin Chung Ying,former head of Temaseks India unit Manish Kejriwal,writer Chetan Bhagat and columnist Tavleen Singh.

The Anna Hazare campaign against corruption,Jaitley said,showed that people are getting exasperated. I do not agree with what they represent. But Governance needs a deterrent and some fear has to come in and needs an institution which keeps a watchful eye.

Jaitley also said that although he has been managing elections in various states over the years,he is not averse to contesting himself. It is just that he would need the party ticket to do so,he added.