From Student Leader To Becoming Finance Minster: Remembering Arun Jaitley On His First Death Anniversary

Today marks the first death anniversary of the BJP leader and India's former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. He started his political career as a student leader and was vital during the protest against the Emergency in the 70s. Known as an expert strategist, Jaitley also helped to bring Narendra Modi to the national scene.

PTI Photo

New Delhi: Today marks the one-year death anniversary of the former finance minister Arun Jaitley who was a key leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Jaitley who was born on 28 December 1952 was the son of Maharaj Kishen Jaitley, a lawyer, and mother Ratan Prabha Jaitley a homemaker. During his time in the University, he was active in student politics and became a prominent Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) student leader at the Delhi University Campus in the seventies. He was also part of the anti-corruption movement or JP movement started by the political leader Jai Prakash Narayan which opposed the Indira Gandhi government at the centre. On June 26, 1975, when Indira Gandhi declared Emergency, Jaitley who at the time was the president of the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) led a group of people and burned Indira Gandhi's effigy. According to a report by Times of India, Jaitley said that when the Emergency was announced police had come to arrest him but he managed to escape. He said that the next day he gathered people and burnt an effigy. He was later arrested. He said in the report, 'I technically became the first Satyagrahi of the Emergency as on June 26 this was the only protest in the country.' Jaitley was detained for three months in Ambala Jail. Jaitley was the member of the national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 1991. He also played a part in bringing Narendra Modi to the national scene. According to a report by India Today, he was the one to convince Vajpayee not to replace Modi during the Gujarat riots in 2002. Vajpayee was displeased the way Modi was handling the situation but Jaitley made him understand that removing Modi from the position would do the party more harm. He had also helped Modi with his election strategy in 2007 and was a troubleshooter for both Modi and Amit Shah. During the first term of the Narendra Modi government, Jaitley became the finance minister and also held the defence portfolio. Several big decisions were taken during his tenure, such as demonetisation of Ts 500 and Rs 1000 notes and the introduction of Goods and Services Tax(GST). By the second term of the Modi government, his declining health prevented him from actively participating in its functioning. On August 24 2019, Jaitley breathed his last in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi where he was admitted. Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi also paid a tribute to the leader and tweeted that he 'missed his friend a lot.'

On this day, last year, we lost Shri Arun Jaitley Ji. I miss my friend a lot.

Arun Ji diligently served India. His wit, intellect, legal acumen and warm personality were legendary. Here is what I had said during a prayer meeting in his memory. https://t.co/oTcSeyssRk — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 24, 2020