Who Was Mr. Arun Jaitley?

ARUN JAITLEY, a senior BJP member was born on 28th December 1952. His father Maharaj Kishen Jaitley was a lawyer and his mother Ratan Prabha was a housewife. He completed his school years in ST. Xavier’s school moreover, completed his graduation and an honours degree in commerce, B.Com from Shri Ram College of Commerce. He passed his LLB from the Faculty of Law, University in Delhi.
Arun Jaitley was the ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad) student leader at DU (Delhi University) campus and later he rose to be the president of the student of Student Union of Delhi University in 1974. He was the illustrious leader of a movement against corruption launched in the year 1973 by Raj Narain and Jayprakash Narayan. He also showed his active involvement in the civil rights movement and helped in creating PUCL BULLETIN in the company with Satish Jha and Smitu Kothari. He was also the convener of the national committee for students and youth organizations appointed by Jaiprakash Narayan.

In 1917, being the convener of the Loklantrik Yuva Morcha at a time when the congress experienced conquer. Arun was appointed the president of the Delhi ABVP and all secretary of the ABVP. He was then made the president of the youth wing of the BJP and the secretary of the Delhi unit in 1980, instantly after connecting to the party.

Since 1987, Jaitley had been practicing law in the supreme court of India and several high courts in India. In January 1990, he was designated as a senior advocate by the Delhi High Court. A paper on law about corruption and crime in India was presented by him, before the Indo-British legal forum. He was appointed as the government of India’s delegate to the United Nations. General assembly session in June 1998 approved the declaration on laws relating to drugs and money laundering. Jaitely had also appeared on behalf of giant multinational corporations such as PepsiCo against Coca-Cola and in various other cases.

Jaitely had been a member of a national executive of the Bhartiya Janta Party since 1991. He became the spokesperson of the BJP during the period preceding the 1999 general elections.

On 13th October 1999, after the Vajpayee government of the BJP led national democratic alliance came to power, he was appointed minister of state for information and broadcasting. In addition, he was appointed minister of state for disinvestment.

In November 2000 and was made a Cabinet Minister for the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs and Shipping. The Ministry of Surface Transport was bifurcated and he was appointed as the first Minister of Shipping. He demitted the office of the Minister for Shipping with effect from 1 September 2001 and as Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs on 1 July 2002. He then served as the General Secretary of the BJP and its national spokesman.

He was chosen as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on 3 June 2009 by L.K. Advani. On 16 June 2009, he resigned from the post of General Secretary of BJP as per his party's One Man One Post principle. He was also a member of the Central Election Committee of the party. As the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, he participated in the debates on the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha and also supported Anna Hazare in his 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement for the Jan Lokpal Bill. He successfully introduced the eighty-fourth amendment to the Constitution of India in 2002 freezing parliamentary seats until 2026 and the ninety-first amendment to the Constitution of India in 2004 penalizing defections.

He was nominated as a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat. He was re-nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in March 2018.

On 26 May 2014, Jaitley was selected by newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be the Minister of Finance, the Minister for Corporate Affairs and the Minister of Defence, in his cabinet.

During his tenure as the Finance Minister of India, the government demonetized the 500 and 1000 currency notes with the stated intention of curbing corruption, black money, fake currency, and terrorism from 9 November 2016. He oversaw the introduction of the GST which brought the country under one GST regime. On 20 June 2017, he reaffirmed that the roll-out of GST overseen by him as the finance minister was on track.

On 29 May 2019, in a letter to Prime Minister Modi, Arun Jaitley cited his health as a reason for not taking an active role in the formation of the new government, effectively declining a role as a minister in the second term of Prime Minister Modi.

Arun Jaitley married Sangeeta, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Girdhari Lal Dogra, on 25 May 1982. They have two children, Rohan and Sonali; Both his children are lawyers. He had two siblings.

Arun Jaitley was going through a lot of problems. He was facing many health-related issues and he also experienced many surgeries.

In 2005, he underwent coronary artery bypass surgery after he was diagnosed with high blood pressure. In 2014 he suddenly weighed 117 kgs so just to reduce his weight a gastric bypass surgery was performed. Doctors confirmed that he has diabetes for a long time. Due to his uncontrolled diabetes, he experienced a surgery called kidney transplant surgery in May 2018. In February 2019, he had been diagnosed with a rare form of soft tissue sarcoma and his treatment is taking place in the USA. On 9th August 2019, he admitted to All India Institutes Of Medical science, New Delhi.

By 23rd August 2019 his health had deteriorated. Arun Jaitley died at 12:07 pm (IST) Aged 66. He was cremated at Nigam Bodh Ghat on 25th August 2019.

By: Gunika Anand

School: Guru Harkrishan Public School

Class: 8th