On Saturday, Former Finance minister Arun Jaitley passed away at AIIMS hospital.Jaitley who was 66 years old was undergoing treatment at the hospital for past several weeks.
Jaitley was rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on August 9 after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness.
A lawyer by profession, Jaitley was the most important leader in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet during his first tenure and acted as the chief for the government, especially during the crucial times of demonetisation and GST rollout.He became the finance minister in 2014 when BJP led by Narendra Modi came to power.Arun Jaitley was a loyal Bharatiya Janata Party worker and served the party well.
Some of the high points of the veteran BJP leader includes-
1. Arun Jaitley was born on 28 December 1952. He graduated from the Shri Ram College of Commerce in 1973 before becoming the president of Delhi University Students Union on an ABVP ticket in 1974.
2. From 1975-77 Jaitley was placed under preventive detention during the Emergency. In 1977 he got his law degree from University of Delhi.
3. In 1980, Jaitley formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and became the member of party’s national executive in 1991.
4. In 1991, He was elected as the vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. In October he was named minister of state for information and broadcasting.
5. On July 2000, He got an additional charge of law ministry. In July 2002 he was named BJP’s general secretary and became the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha in June 2009.
6. In 2014, he lost the general election from Amritsar against Captain Amarinder Singh but Jaitley took over as the finance minister.
7. On 29 May 2019 he writes a letter to PM Modi recusing himself from any Cabinet post in NDA’s second term.