New Delhi: Senior BJP leader and former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has died on Saturday. Was admitted in AIIMS from 9 August. At 12:07 pm, he breathed his last at the age of 67. Their role was important in giving ‘one country, one tax’ as GST in the country. Arun Jaitley was also a minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. Arun Jaitley, a successful lawyer by profession, also earned a lot of name in political life.
Delhi: Former Union Minister and Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley passes away at AIIMS pic.twitter.com/OTDwN7sM0w
— ANI (@ANI) August 24, 2019
- Arun Jaitley was born on 28 December 1952 in Delhi. His father was a lawyer by profession.
- Arun Jaitley studied from St. Xavier’s School in New Delhi from 1957-69. After this, he did B.Com from Sri Ram College of Commerce. He completed law in 1977 from Delhi University.
- Arun Jaitley was also a student leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) during the period of law. He became the President of DU Student Union in 1974 while studying at DU.
- In 1975, he was placed under house arrest for opposing the Emergency in the country for 19 months. In 1973, he was also active in the anti-corruption movement being run by Jayaprakash Narayan and Rajnarayan. After detention, he joined the Jan Sangh Party.
- In 1977, he was made the President of Delhi ABVP and All India Secretary. He was made the President of BJP Yuva Morcha and Secretary of Delhi Unit in 1980.
- Arun Jaitley started advocacy in 1987. He practiced from the Supreme Court to various High Courts. In 1990, Delhi High Court declared him as Senior Advocate. In 1989, Jaitley was appointed Additional Solicitor General in VP Singh’s government. He completed the document process to investigate the Bofors scam.
- Arun Jaitley has been a member of the National Executive of the BJP since 1991. In the 1999 general election, BJP made him a party spokesperson. Jaitley stopped advocacy in June 2009. He was made the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha from 2009 to 2014. He resigned as the party general secretary in 2009 when the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha became the opposition.
- In 1999, he was made Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Information and Broadcasting in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. He was also Law Minister in this government. He was also made the Independent Minister of State for Disinvestment. After the Lok Sabha elections held in 2000, he was made the Minister of Law, Justice, Company Affairs and Shipping.
- In 2014, Arun Jaitley contested from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket. But he lost to Congress candidate Capt Amarinder Singh.
- Arun Jaitley was a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat. In March 2018, he was elected a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. After the formation of Modi government in 2014, he held important ministries like Finance Ministry and Defense Ministry in this government.
- In 2016, during the tenure of Arun Jaitley as Finance Minister, the government had banned demonetisation in 2016, attacking corruption and black money. The government had discontinued 500 and 1000 rupee notes.
- Arun Jaitley was married to Sangeeta Jaitley in 1982. They have two children – Rohan and Sonali. Both his children are lawyers.
- In 2018, Arun Jaitley underwent a kidney transplant at AIIMS in Delhi. In January 2019, doctors came to know that Arun Jaitley had soft tissue sarcoma. It was a form of cancer. After this he had a successful surgery in New York.
- Arun Jaitley wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 29 May 2014, citing poor health and said that he should not be given any important information in the new government.