Arun Jaitley’s name is always taken as such a leader of the country, during whose tenure as Finance Minister, the country saw major economic activities like demonetization and implementation of GST. It has always been, and probably will be, a subject of political debate as to how correct these two decisions were, but Jaitley played a big role in implementing them. But Jaitley will be best known for his eloquence and his legal abilities. His birthday is on 28th December. His political career was greatly influenced by the politics of his advocacy career (career in law) and student life.
Arun Jaitley was born on 28 December 1952 in Delhi in a Punjabi Hindu Mohyal Brahmin family. He inherited the legal profession from his father Maharaj Kishan. He received a BA degree with honors from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi and then graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi in 1977. This education became the foundation of his career not only in law but also in politics.
Jaitley grew up in student life
Jaitley became a student leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on the Delhi University campus and became the President of the Delhi University Students’ Union in 1974. Raj Narayan and Jai Prakash Narayan proved to be one of the key leaders in the anti-corruption campaign in 1973. During that time he was made the coordinator of the National Committee of Youth and Student Organization.
Jaitley in emergency
He protested during the Emergency when fundamental rights were abolished across the country. Early in the morning on 26 June 1975, they burnt the effigy of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in protest against the Emergency. He used to say that he was the ‘first Satyagrahi’ against the Emergency. Due to this, he had to spend 19 months in jail and after being released from jail, he became a member of Jan Sangh.
Jaitley was a friend of friends
But along with political life, Arun Jaitley has also been known as a skilled speaker, lawyer, always ready to help friends and an excellent coordinating leader. From cricket to advocacy and politics, in whatever field he was active, even his opponents could not remain impressed by him. His advocacy skills contributed greatly to this capacity.
More of a lawyer than a politician
After joining the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980, Arun Jaitley became the president of its Delhi youth wing. Subsequently, in the 1980s, he became more active in politics as well as advocacy and in 1987 he became a Supreme Court lawyer and after coming to power in the non-Congress government in the 1990s, he became the country’s youngest Additional Chief Justice. Became Solicitor General. During this decade he became known for skillfully defending his party leaders in legal matters.
Relations with politicians from many parties
Jaitley’s political connections proved to be far-reaching. He was known for skillfully defending his party leaders in legal matters. Madhavrao Scindia, Lal Krishna Advani, Sharad Yadav were prominent political names. In 1989, he was appointed Additional Solicitor General in the government of Vishwanath Pratap Singh. He did the paperwork to investigate the Bofors scam. During this period he had relations with leaders of all political parties.
Jaitley became a prominent leader of BJP in the beginning of this century. Jaitley was Minister of State for Disinvestment in the Atal government, became the BJP spokesperson in 2003 and became the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha in 2009. Till 2014, Jaitley was the Minister of Finance, Defense and Corporate Affairs in the Modi government. He played a major role in bringing consensus in the Centre-State GST Councils while implementing the GST system.
