Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jaitley previously held the cabinet portfolios of Finance,

Defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indus ...

, Corporate Affairs, Commerce and Industry, and Law and Justice in the Vajpayee government and Narendra Modi government. From 2009 to 2014, he served as the Leader of the Opposition in the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

. He was a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India. He oversaw the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax which brought the country under one GST regime, demonetisation, merger of Railway budget with general budget and introduction of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Jaitley decided not to join the second Modi Cabinet in 2019, due to health issues. He was awarded the

Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service". All persons without ...

, India's second highest civilian award, posthumously in 2020 in the field of Public Affairs.

Early life

Arun Jaitley was born on 28 December 1952 in Delhi into a

Punjabi Hindu Punjabi Hindus are adherents of Hinduism who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis. While Punjabi Hindus are mostly found in the Indian state of Punjab today, many have ancestry from the greater Punjab regio ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (gur ...

family. His father Maharaj Kishen Jaitley was a lawyer and mother Ratan Prabha Jaitley a housewife. He studied at St. Xavier's Senior Secondary School, Delhi from 1957 to 1969. He graduated with the honours degree in commerce, B.Com from

Shri Ram College of Commerce Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) is a constituent college of the University of Delhi. Founded in 1926 by industrialist Lala Shri Ram, it is widely regarded as the most prestigious college for commerce and economics in India. SRCC was ranke ...

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

in 1973. He passed his

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degree from

Faculty of Law, University of Delhi The Faculty of Law, University of Delhi is the law department of the University of Delhi. It has the unique distinction of producing the largest number of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India. It is situated in the north campus of the ...

in 1977. Jaitley was the

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) () is a right-wing all India student organisation affiliated to the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). History The ABVP, founded in 1948 with the initiative of the RSS a ...

(ABVP) student leader at the

Campus in the seventies and rose to be the President of the

Students Union A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

in 1974. During the period of proclamation of

Internal Emergency The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared across the country. Officially issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under Article 352 of the Constitution beca ...

(1975–77) when

fundamental rights Fundamental rights are a group of rights that have been recognized by a high degree of protection from encroachment. These rights are specifically identified in a constitution, or have been found under due process of law. The United Nations' Susta ...

were suspended, he was under

preventive detention Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non- punitive purposes, most often to prevent (further) criminal acts. Types of preventive detention There is no universally agreed definition of preventive detention, and m ...

for a period of 19 months. He was a prominent leader of a movement against corruption launched in the year 1973 by

Raj Narain Raj Narain (23 November 1917 – 31 December 1986) was an Indian freedom fighter and politician. He won in a famous electoral malpractice case against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which led to her disqualification and imposition of E ...

and

Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' ( Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for l ...

. He was the convener of the National Committee for Students and Youth organisation appointed by

Jai Prakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for le ...

. He was also active in civil rights movement and helped found PUCL Bulletin along with Satish Jha and Smitu Kothari. After being released from jail, he joined the Jan Sangh. In 1977, being the convener of the Loktantrik Yuva Morcha at a time when the Congress suffered defeat, Jaitley was appointed the president of the Delhi ABVP and All India 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, a short time after joining the party.

Legal career

Since 1977, Jaitley had been practising 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 The High Court of Delhi ( IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S ...

. He was a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India. He was appointed Additional Solicitor General by the V. P. Singh government in 1989 and did the paperwork for the investigations into the

Bofors scandal The Bofors scandal was a major weapons-contract political scandal that occurred between India and Sweden during the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by Indian National Congress politicians and implicating the Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, a ...

. His clients cover the political spectrum from

Sharad Yadav Sharad Yadav (born 1 July 1947) is a politician from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party. He has been elected to Lok Sabha seven times and to Rajya Sabha thrice from JD(U). He was the first national president of Janata Dal (United) since its form ...

of the

Janata Dal Janata Dal (“People’s Party”) was an Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Jagjivan), and the Jan Morcha united on 11 October 1988 on the birth annive ...

Madhavrao Scindia Madhavrao Jivajirao Scindia (10 March 1945 – 30 September 2001) was an Indian politician and a minister in the Government of India. He was a member of the Indian National Congress party. Scindia was the son of Jiwajirao Scindia, the last rul ...

of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

L. K. Advani Lal Krishna Advani (born 8 November 1927) is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. Advani is one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is a longtime memb ...

of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Several publications on legal and current affairs were written by him. A paper on law about corruption and crime in India was presented by him, before the Indo-British Legal Forum. He was appointed the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

's delegate to the United Nations General Assembly Session in June 1998 which approved the Declaration on Laws Relating to Drugs and Money Laundering. Jaitley had also appeared on behalf of giant multinational corporations such as PepsiCo against

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...

and in various other cases in India. After having been the Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, Jaitley represented Pepsi in 2002 in a case where the Supreme Court of India admonished and imposed stiff fines on 8 companies for painting advertisements on ecologically fragile rocks along the Manali-Rohtang road in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

. "The companies were also issued show-cause notices as to why exemplary damages should not be imposed on them for indulging in environmental vandalism." In 2004, Jaitley appeared on behalf of

in a Rajasthan High Court case. Given his political duties as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley stopped practising law in June 2009.

Political career

Jaitley had been a member of the national executive of

since 1991. He became the spokesperson of the BJP during the period preceding the 1999 general election.

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting (1999–2000)

On 13 October 1999, after the

Vajpayee Government Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of India, first from 16 May to 1 June 1996, and then from 19 March 1998 to 22 May 2004. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vajpayee was the tenth Pri ...

of the BJP led National Democratic Alliance came to power, he was appointed Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge). In addition he was appointed Minister of State for Disinvestment (Independent Charge). The disinvestment ministry was created for the first time in accordance with the policy of disinvestment under the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...

regime. On 23 July 2000 following the resignation of

Ram Jethmalani Ram Boolchand Jethmalani (14 September 1923 – 8 September 2019) was an Indian lawyer and politician. He served as India's Union minister of law and justice, as chairman of the Indian Bar Council, and as the president of the Supreme Court B ...

as the Union Cabinet Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, he took over his ministry as an additional charge.

Union Minister of Law and Justice (2000–04)

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 worked in this capacity until January 2003. He rejoined the Union Cabinet as the Minister of Commerce & Industry and Law & Justice on 29 January 2003. With the defeat of the National Democratic Alliance in May 2004, Jaitley returned to his legal career and worked in the Supreme Court.

Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha (2009–14)

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 the 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 The Jan Lokpal Bill, also referred to as the Citizen's Ombudsman Bill, was a bill drawn up by civil society activists in India seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body to investigate corruption cases and complete the investi ...

. He successfully introduced the eighty-fourth amendment to the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ...

in 2002, freezing parliamentary seats until 2026, and the ninety-first amendment to the Constitution of India in 2004, penalising defections. However, being in the party since 1980, he never contested any direct election until 2014. He was the BJP candidate for the Amritsar seat in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

(replacing Navjot Singh Sidhu) for the 2014 general election, but lost to the

candidate

Amarinder Singh Captain Amarinder Singh (born 11 March 1942), is an Indian politician, military historian, former royal and Indian Army veteran who served as the 15th Chief Minister of Punjab. A former Member of the Legislative Assembly, Punjab and Member ...

. He was elected as a

member from

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

. He was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in March 2018. On 26 August 2012, he said (outside Parliament) "There are occasions when an obstruction in Parliament brings greater benefits to the country." This statement was considered to have given legitimacy to obstruction by the parliament in contemporary Indian politics. After forming a government in 2014, the BJP government has faced disruption and obstruction in parliament multiple times, and the opposition have referred to this statement as a legitimizing that floor strategy.

Union Finance Minister (2014–19)

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. Analysts cited Jaitley's "part-time" focus on defence as a simple continuation of the policies of the previous government. According to a WikiLeaks cable by Robert Blake, the Charge at the US Embassy, to his government, when pressed on the question of Hindutva, Jaitley had argued that Hindu nationalism "will always be a talking point" for the BJP and characterised this as an opportunistic issue. Jaitley later clarified that "the use of the word opportunistic in reference to nationalism or Hindu nationalism is neither my view nor my language. It could be the diplomat's own usage." During the 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, Arun Jaitley agreed with Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...

's assertions that the idea of reservations on the basis of religion is fraught with danger and was against giving reservations to Muslim Dalits and Christian Dalits as it might impact demography. He also served as a member to the Board of Governors of

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field offic ...

. In November 2015, Jaitley said that personal laws governing marriages and divorces should be subject to fundamental rights, as constitutionally-guaranteed rights are supreme. He announced the Income declaration scheme, 2016 in September 2016. During his tenure as the Finance Minister of India, the government demonetised 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 Goods and Services Tax (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. Out Leadership recommended Arun Jaitley as one of the experts and leaders who openly speak on

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

+ issues. 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. In January 2019 Jaitley generated controversy when he accused the Central Bureau of Investigation of ''investigative adventurism'' in the ICICI Bank – Videocon fraud case. The Central Bureau of Investigation had named Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar as beneficiaries in the financial fraud, in which Venugopal Dhoot, the promoter of Videocon had fraudulently transferred part of the loan received from ICICI Bank to the Kochhar's business entreprise. Jaitley stated that naming the corrupt bank officials will not help in the investigation. Previously in September 2012, Jaitley had warned CBI on corruption cases involving political leaders from

Personal life

Arun Jaitley married Sangeeta, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Girdhari Lal Dogra, on 24 May 1982. They have two children, Rohan and Sonali; the latter married Jaiyesh Bakhshi. Both his children are lawyers. He had two siblings.

Illness and death

Jaitley had a series of health-related issues and underwent multiple surgeries leading into his deteriorating health and subsequent death in 2019. In 2005, he underwent a coronary artery bypass surgery after he was diagnosed with high blood pressure. In 2014, when he weighed , a

gastric bypass surgery Gastric bypass surgery refers to a technique in which the stomach is divided into a small upper pouch and a much larger lower "remnant" pouch and then the small intestine is rearranged to connect to both. Surgeons have developed several differ ...

was performed on him aimed at reducing his weight. Doctors confirmed that Jaitley had been "suffering from diabetes for nearly two decades" then, and that the said procedure was the best option for patients with "uncontrolled diabetes". In May 2018, he underwent a kidney transplant surgery. In February 2019, the media reported that Jaitley had been diagnosed with a rare form of

soft-tissue sarcoma A soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) is a malignant tumour, a type of cancer, that develops in soft tissue. A soft tissue sarcoma is often a painless mass that grows slowly over months or years. They may be superficial or deep-seated. Any such unexplaine ...

and was undergoing treatment in the US, although it was termed a "regular medical check-up". On 9 August, he was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (AIIMS) after he complained of "breathlessness". On 17 August, it was reported that he was on life-support. By 23 August, his health had deteriorated. Jaitley died at 12:07 p.m. ( IST) the following day, aged 66. He was cremated at Nigam Bodh Ghat on 25 August. The Indian Cricket team wore black armbands for a day during the test match with the West Indies, to condole Jaitley's death.

Legacy

On 12 September 2019, Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla stadium was renamed as Arun Jaitley Stadium at a function held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in memory of Jaitley. The decision to name the stadium after him came as he was once the president of DDCA and also the vice-president of the BCCI. On 28 December 2020, Home Minister Amit Shah unveiled a statue of Arun Jaitley at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

References

External links

* .
Detailed Profile: Shri Arun Jaitley

Arun Jaitley
collected news and commentary at BloombergQuint {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaitley, Arun 1952 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Indian lawyers Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Delhi Commerce and Industry Ministers of India Defence Ministers of India Delhi politicians Faculty of Law, University of Delhi alumni Finance Ministers of India Indian Hindus Indian solicitors Indians imprisoned during the Emergency (India) Law Ministers of India Leaders of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Leaders of the Rajya Sabha Ministers for Corporate Affairs Ministers for Information and Broadcasting of India Narendra Modi ministry National Democratic Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election People from New Delhi Presidents of Delhi University Students Union Punjabi people Punjabi Hindus Punjabi Brahmins Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat Rajya Sabha members from the Bharatiya Janata Party Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in public affairs Senior Advocates in India Shri Ram College of Commerce alumni Supreme Court of India lawyers