Arun Jaitley brought measures like GST into effect with ease, ushered civility into public discourse
Arun Jaitley was among the most prominent Bharatiya Janata Party leaders. He passed away at the age of 66 on 24 August at AIIMS, a fortnight after he was admitted following complaints of breathlessness and restlessness
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Arun Jaitley, also fondly called Chanakya, scholar minister, among other nicknames, was among the most prominent Bharatiya Janata Party leaders. He passed away at the age of 66 on 24 August at AIIMS, a fortnight after he was admitted following complaints of breathlessness and restlessness. Image courtesy: News18 archives
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Born on 28 December, 1952 in Delhi, Jaitley studied at the St Xavier’s School from 1957–69. He graduated with a honours degree in commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University in 1973. He passed his LLB degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, in 1977. Recalling his shy and reserved demeanour as a child, many of his school friends said they were surprised to see Jaitley grow into the very articulate and vociferous leader that he was, apart from being one of India’s top lawyers. Image courtesy: News18 archives
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Jaitley was an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) student leader at Delhi University in the seventies and became the president of the Students’ Union of Delhi University in 1974. During the period of proclamation of the 1975 Emergency, he was under preventive detention for a period of 19 months. After being released from jail, he joined the Jan Sangh. He was made the president of the youth wing of the BJP and the secretary of the Delhi unit in 1980. Image courtesy: News18 archives
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After completing his law, the former minister practised before the Supreme Court of India and several other High Courts in the country. In January 1990, he was designated as the Senior Advocate in the Delhi High Court. In 1998, he became a delegate on behalf of the Government of India to the United Nations General Assembly Session. Image courtesy: News18 archives
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An interesting fact about Jaitley, and that uniquely sets him apart in the political rank and file was, that he never did manage to win the public vote. The one time he actually contested an election from Amritsar in 2014, he lost it despite a prominent Modi wave. Yet, Jaitley remained the de-facto number two in the Narendra Modi cabinet during his previous term and was BJP’s all seasons man, come what may. Many of his contemporaries saw their careers end after losing elections, but it was Jaitley’s sheer brilliance and resourcefulness that ensured his top rank within the party. He was the member of the national executive of BJP since 1990. In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, he became the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting in 1999. Additionally, he also headed the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs. Image courtesy: News18 archives
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Jaitley was made the member of Rajya Sabha for the first time from Gujarat in 2000. He also became the Law Minister in the Cabinet. In 2002, he was appointed as the General Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party and worked as the national spokesperson till 2003. Image courtesy: News18 archives
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Jaitley, described as a precious diamond by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was elected as the member of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat in 2006 and 2012 consecutively. He served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. He was even given additional charge of defence when Manohar Parrikar’s health deteriorated. It was due to Jaitley’s efforts that as contentious and disruptive a change in India’s taxation system as GST was rolled out smoothly and with broad consensus. He worked tirelessly to bring onboard all stakeholders from across India and perfected the system, course-correcting as and when the newly-introduced taxation system needed a review. Image courtesy: News18 archives
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An eloquent orator with sharp acumen, Jaitley defended the government’s policies, launched fierce attacks on the opposition parties, explained to the nation the reason behind global prices and the rationale behind the Rafale deal and got into effect measures like demonetisation and GST. He also shared a close rapport with several Opposition leaders. As Shashi Tharoor puts it, “He was the favourite BJP person of non-BJP folks.” Image courtesy: News18 archives
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Jaitley’s stint in the Modi-1.0 government was affected by his frequent bouts of illness that even led him to take a short leave. Last year, he took a three-month break to undergo a kidney transplant and in 2019, he was forced to travel to the US for another treatment, depriving him of the opportunity to present the sixth and final Budget of the Modi government’s first term. Image courtesy: News18 archives
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A moderate, Jaitley had friends across the political spectrum and was one of India’s most articulate and influential leaders who brought civility to public discourse, irrespective of whether one agreed with his position or not. All BJP spokespersons flocked to him for advice. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar once called him a “super strategist. Image courtesy: News18 archives
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