Today is the second death anniversary of Arun Jaitley. He was a famous Indian lawyer and politician. He was one of the active leaders who made his mark in politics. Jaitley’s name comes at the top of the prominent strategists of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Be it the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government or the Narendra Modi government, Jaitley has been active in making strategies for the party all the time. He was in constant touch with the leaders of his party as well as the workers.
Jaitley was a member of the National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 1991. He had become the spokesperson of the BJP during the period before the general election of 1999. In 1999, the National Democratic Alliance came to power under the leadership of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government of the BJP. In which he was appointed as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Information and Broadcasting on 13 October 1999. He was also appointed Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Disinvestment. For the first time, a new ministry was created to give effect to the policy of disinvestment under the rule of the WTO.
Jaitley took the additional charge of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Corporate Affairs on 23 July 2000, following the resignation of the then Union Cabinet Minister for Justice and Company Affairs, Ram Jethmalani. He was then promoted as a cabinet minister in November 2000 and was simultaneously made Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs and Shipping.
He was also the Minister of Shipping after the bifurcation of the Ministry of Surface Transport. He joined the Office of Shipping from 1 July 2001 as Union Minister, Justice and Company Affairs from 1 July 2002 to the BJP and as its National Spokesperson. He served in this capacity till January 2003. He was reappointed to the Union Cabinet on 29 January 2003 as Minister of Commerce and Industry and Law and Justice. After the defeat of the National Democratic Alliance in May 2004, Jaitley returned to his legal career to serve the BJP as a general secretary.
Arun Jaitley was appointed on 3 June 2009. by L.K.Advani as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. On 16 June 2009, he resigned from the post of General Secretary of BJP in accordance with his party’s one-man one-post principle. He was also a member of the party’s Central Election Committee.
Jaitley played a key role as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha during the negotiations for the Women’s Reservation Bill and supported Anna Hazare for the Jan Lokpal Bill. He successfully introduced the Eighty-Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of India in 2002 to free up parliamentary seats by 2026 and the Ninety-fourth Amendment to the Constitution of India in 2004 that penalized defects. However, being in the party since 1980, he never contested any direct elections till 2014.
Let us tell you that Jaitley won the first election for the post of President of Delhi University Students Union in 1974 as an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) candidate.
Jaitley contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the Amritsar seat, where he lost to Congress candidate Amarinder Singh. Jaitley was fielded from this seat in place of Sidhu. However, Jaitley was a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat. He was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in March 2018. Where he was chosen as the Finance Minister on 26 May 2014, by the newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
During his tenure as the Finance Minister of India, the government demonetized the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes of the Mahatma Gandhi series with the intention of curbing corruption, black money, counterfeit currency, and terrorism with effect from November 9, 2016. Also, GST was implemented on July 1, 2017.
On 9 August 2019, Arun Jaitley was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi in a critical condition after he complained of breathlessness. After which he was on life support on August 17. By 23 August, his health had deteriorated. Due to which he died on 24 August 2019 at the age of 66.
