Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi at 12:07 pm on Saturday. The 66-year-old BJP stalwart, who was suffering from diabetes, had developed major kidney complications in 2018. He underwent kidney transplant surgery at the All India Medical Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, on May 14, 2018. Due to his health issues, Arun Jaitley even opted out of the Modi 2.0 Cabinet, despite being the top troubleshooter in the previous BJP government.

Arun Jaitley was born on December 28, 1952, to Maharaj Kishen Jaitley and Ratan Prabha Jaitley. His father was a lawyer. Arun Jaitley did his schooling at St Xavier’s School, New Delhi, from 1960-69, and graduated in commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce in 1973. He also did his law degree from the University of Delhi in 1977. Arun Jaitley married Sangeeta, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Girdhari Lal Dogra, on May 24, 1982. They have two children, Rohan and Sonali. Jaitley’s both children are lawyers by profession.

After doing his LLB, Arun Jaitley started his law practice in the Supreme Court and several high courts in 1977. In January 1990, he was designated as a Senior Advocate by the Delhi High Court. He was also appointed Additional Solicitor General in 1989. Arun Jaitley was a delegate on behalf of the Government of India to the United Nations General Assembly Session in June 1998 where the Declaration on Laws Relating to Drugs and Money Laundering was approved. His clients cover the political spectrum from Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal to Madhavrao Scindia of the Congress to LK Advani of the BJP. During the 1975 emergency under Indira Gandhi, Arun Jaitley was placed under preventive detention for 19 months.

In July 2000, Jaitley was also given charge of the ministry of law, justice and company affairs and in the same year was made a cabinet minister. In college, Arun Jaitley was the student leader of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in Delhi University Campus and later became the President of the University Students’ Union in 1974. Arun Jaitley as a lawyer represented the high profile case for Pepsi Company in a 2002 Supreme Court case against the Coca Cola company. He stopped practicing law from 2009.

Jaitley’s formal entry into national politics happened in 1991 when he was made a member of the national executive of the BJP. Within eight years of joining the BJP, he became the minister of state for information and broadcasting with independent charge in the NDA government at the Centre, led by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was also the minister of state for disinvestment with independent charge, a ministry created to give effect to the policy of disinvestments. 

The former finance minister had played a crucial role in Narendra Modi becoming the prime ministerial candidate of BJP in 2013 before the 2014 general elections, an idea that some of the senior leaders of the party were opposed to. Jaitley had personally spoken to most of the members of the party’s parliamentary board and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states to get their support in favour of Modi as the prime ministerial candidate of BJP. After the BJP, under Modi, won the elections, he was made the finance and corporate affairs minister. He also handled the portfolio of defence between 2014 and 2017 and of information and broadcasting between 2014 and 2016.

His other big achievements include setting up of a Monetary Policy Committee to set the inflation target of 4% with an allowance of plus or minus 2% and the further liberalisation of foreign investment rules. In addition, Jaitley took steps to stabilise the economy, which ensured India was no longer a part of the Fragile Five club. Not only did he raise GDP growth from 6.4% in FY14 to 6.8% in FY19, he also brought down consumer price inflation from 9.5% in FY14 to 2.92% in April 2019. For the poor, keeping a lid on inflation was perhaps his biggest achievement.

The consolidation of the banking sector was another major step initiated by Jaitley during his five-year term at North Block. He merged five associated banks of State Bank of India (SBI) and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with SBI, and also merged Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda.

Budget reforms too were a part of his agenda. These included doing away with the artificial boundary of plan and non-plan expenditure and a separate railway budget.

Former finance minister Arun Jaitley will be sorely missed in the finance ministry not just because of his ability to build a consensus with various state governments to ring in some big-ticket reforms such as the goods and services tax (GST), but also because of his role as the main troubleshooter for the Narendra Modi government, given his legal background.

Career Journey:

> 1989 – 90: Additional Solicitor General, Government of India

> 13 Oct. 1999 – 30 Sept. 2000: Minister of State (Independent charge) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting

> 10 Dec. 1999 – July 2000: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Department of Disinvestment (Additional Charge)

> April 2000: Elected to Rajya Sabha

> 23 July 2000 – 6 Nov. 2000: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs

> 7 Nov. 2000 – 1 July 2002: Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs

> 20 March 2001 – 1 Sept. 2001: Minister of Shipping (Additional Charge)

> 29 Jan. 2003 – 21 May 2004: Minister of Law and Justice and Minister of Commerce and Industry

> April 2006: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha (second term)

> 3 June 2009 – 2 April 2012 and 3 April 2012 – 26 May 2014 Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha

> April 2012 Re-elected to Rajya Sabha (third term)

> 27 May 2014 – 9 Nov. 2014: Minister of Defence

> 27 May 2014 – 14 May 2018: Minister of Finance Minister of Corporate Affairs

> 2 June 2014 – May 2019: Leader of the House, Rajya Sabha

> 9 Nov. 2014 – 5 July 2016: Minister of Information and Broadcasting

> 13 March 2017 – 3 Sept. 2017: Minister of Defence

> April 2018: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha (fourth term)

> 14 May 2018 – 22 August 2018: Minister without Portfolio

> 23 Aug. 2018 – 22 Jan. 2019: Minister of Finance; and Minister of Corporate Affairs

> 23 Jan. 2019 -14 Feb. 2019: Minister without Portfolio

> 15 Feb. 2019 – 30 May 2019: Minister of Finance; and Minister of Corporate Affairs