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| Birth: | Arun Maharaj Kishen Jaitley – 28 December 1952; Delhi, India |
| Death: | 24 August 2019 (aged 66) AIIMS, New Delhi, India |
| Political party: | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Family: | Sangeeta Jaitley (Wife); Sonali Jaitley Bakhshi (Daughter); Rohan Jaitley (Son) |
| Occupation: | Advocate; Politician |
Arun Jaitley was an Indian politician and attorney, who was the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019.
Arun Jaitley Biography:
One of the prominent leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Arun Jaitley was the Finance Minister & Minister of Corporate Affairs in the government of India. He also served as a member to the Board of Governors of Asian Development Bank. He was a senior advocate in the Supreme Court and a former Additional Solicitor General of India. Jaitley served as the General Secretary of the BJP in 2002 and then again in 2004. He resigned from the post of General Secretary in 2009 after he was appointed as the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha under the party principle of “One Man, One Post”. Jaitley has always emerged as a strategic planner of the BJP, helping his party member Narendra Modi win the assembly election in 2002. As the General Secretary, he managed eight assembly elections, which proved victorious for the BJP. He was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 2012 for his third term. He was the Vice President of the BCCI but resigned after the IPL spot-fixing scandal.
Early Life:
Arun Jaitley was born to a family of lawyers, social activists and philanthropists. His father, Maharaj Kishen Jaitley, was also a lawyer and they as a family resided in Naraina Vihar, New Delhi. His mother, Ratan Prabha, was a housewife and a social activist at the same time. Arun Jaitley did his schooling from the St. Xavier’s School (1957-69). He was very passionate about studies, debates, and sports such as cricket. He is a graduate from the Shree Ram College of Commerce and was an active debater and President of the student union of the college. Later, he did LL.B. from the University of Delhi (1973-77).
Since childhood Arun Jaitley had a great amount of interest in law and politics, and his victory in the election as the President of the Delhi University Students’ Union marked the beginning of his political career. He was influenced by the activities of Janata Party and joined the movement against corruption then led by the Janata Party to create awareness among the general public about the misgovernance and corruption by high officials. He was appointed as the Convener of the Coordination Committee of the youth and student organisation.
Arun Jaitley was married to Sangeeta Jaitley, who is the daughter of Giridhar Lal Dogra and Shakuntala Dogra, and has two children, Sonali Jaitley & Rohan Jaitley, and both are lawyers.
Arun Jaitley’s Political Career:
He started his political career in 1974 when he won the election to become the president of Delhi University Students’ Union. At a time when the Congress’s rule was very strong, by winning the election as an ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad) candidate he made a never-ending impact on the people of India. He was a follower of Jai Prakash Narain, known as JP, and considered him his mentor. In 1975 when emergency was declared for 22 months, Arun Jaitley was one of the leaders to be detained and was imprisoned for 19 months in the Tihar Jail, Delhi. He considered this phase as the turning point in his life as he came across people of different backgrounds during his stay in the jail.
In 1977, when the Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the general election and Janata Party came to power, Arun Jaitley was the convener of the Loktantric Yuva Morcha.
Death:
On 9th August 2019, he was hospitalized at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi under critical condition after he complained of “breathlessness”. On 17 August, it was reported that Jaitley was on life-support. By 23 August, his health had deteriorated.
Jaitley died at 12:07 PM (IST) on 24 August 2019 at the age of 66.
Controversies:
- In January 2019 Jaitley created 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 Gujarat.
Political Journey of Arun Jaitley:
- In 1977, Arun Jaitley was appointed as the president of the Delhi ABVP and All India Secretary of the ABVP.
- Being associated with the ABVP since a long time, Arun Jaitley joined the BJP in 1980.
- He was then made the president of the youth wing of the BJP and the secretary of the Delhi Unit in 1980.
- In 1991 he became the member of the National Executive of the BJP.
- In the 1998 United Nation General Assembly session, Arun Jaitley was a delegate on behalf of the government of India. In this session, the bill against drugs and money laundering was introduced.
- He became the spokesperson for the BJP in 1999 just before the General Assembly elections.
- He took over as the Minister of State, Department of Information and Broadcasting in 1999. Additionally, he headed the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs.
- He further joined the Council of Ministers as the Minister of State, and along with this he was in charge of the newly formed Department of Disinvestment.
- In 2000, he was made the member of the Rajya Sabha for the first time from Gujarat.
- In 2000, he was again appointed as the Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs and was also appointed as the head of the Ministry of Shipping. He held the responsibility of modernising ports by upgrading berths and introducing new berths to improve the efficiency by reducing the turnaround time.
- After the resignation of Ramjeth Malani as the Union Cabinet Minister, Arun Jaitley was appointed as the Cabinet Minister in November 2000. He was the Law Minister in the cabinet and introduced many amendments to the Civil Procedure Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, and the Companies Act.
- He then left the cabinet to become the General Secretary of the BJP in July 2002 and worked as the National Spokesperson till January 2003.
- He again joined the Union Cabinet in 2003 as the Minister of Commerce and Industry and Law and Justice, and functioned there till May 2004. As Commerce Minister he had a lot of responsibilities during his this term as the state of the WTO negotiations was very critical during that time. Developed nations such as the US and the EU were forcing to reduce tariffs of agriculture commodities so that they can enter the Indian market and benefit by gaining market share. This would have worsened the conditions of the million of Indian farmers, whose living is based on agriculture. India, along with the G20 group and countries such as China and Brazil, stood against the developed nations by not granting any substantial concession which could have disadvantaged our farmers.
- He was re-elected as the member of the Rajya Sabha in 2006 and again in 2012 from Gujarat, which was his third term as a member of the Rajya Sabha.
- He is recognized as the Leader of Opposition (2009-2012) and has put in constant efforts to bring about positive change. He played a vital role during the talks of the Women Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha and also supported Anna Hazare for the Jan Lokpal Bill.
- On May 26, 2014, Arun Jaitley became the Finance Minister with additional charge of Defence Ministry but now the Defence Ministry has been transferred to previous Goa CM Manohar Parrikar.
Legal Career and Achievements of Arun Jaitley:
- Arun Jaitley started practicing law from 1977 onwards in Supreme Court and several High Courts.
- In 1990, he was promoted to senior Advocate and was appointed Additional Solicitor General of India. As the Additional Solicitor General of India he worked on the Bofors Scandal, which was related to the illegal kickbacks paid in the US$ 1.3 billion deal between Bofors, a Swedish arms manufacturer, and the Government of India.
- As a Law Minister in the Union Cabinet, he brought in a several electoral and judicial reforms. He got the Advocates Welfare fund and Investor Protection Fund set up. He implemented the scheme of setting up of the Fast Track Courts and paid special attention to the computerization of the courts. To facilitate the expeditious disposal of cases, he brought amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act and the Negotiable Instruments Act.
- The High Courts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were inaugurated under his guidance.
- He has a line of clients such as Sharad Yadav, Madhavrao Scindia, and L.K. Advani.
- He has represented many multinationals, such as Pepsico, Coca Cola and big industrialists such as the Birla family in the courtroom.
- He successfully introduced the 84th amendment to the Constitution of India in 2002 for freezing parliamentary seats till 2026.
- He successfully introduced the 91st amendment to the Constitution of India in 2004 for penalizing defections.
Other Achievements:
- He has played an important role as a strategic planner for the BJP in eight Assembly elections.
- In Gujarat, he helped his party colleague Narendra Modi win the 2002 General Assembly election by grabbing 126 seats out of 182. Again in 2007, he helped Modi come back to power by winning 117 seats out of 182 in Gujarat. The state witnessed good governance all this while.
- In 2003, he managed the Assembly election in Madhya Pradesh and won along with Uma Bharti.
- In 2004, he was specifically put in charge in Karnataka which faced Assembly election at the same time as the Lok Sabha election, and the BJP won 18 out of 26 Lok Sabha seats and captured 83 seats in the assembly elections and emerged as the largest party there.
- In 2007, he was appointed general secretary in charge of elections to MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) in which the BJP won 184 wards out of 272.
- He was appointed as the Vice President of BCCI because of his love for the game of cricket and his close associations but he resigned when the IPL match-fixing scandal unfolded.
- Similarly, he resigned from the post of President of the Delhi District Cricket Association after a service of 13 years to concentrate on the first love of his life: politics. He has made great contribution in improving the standards of the stadium in Delhi, which was rated as one of the best by the BCCI.
