Ex-Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Passes Away
Supremely learned and intelligent politician Arun Jaitley has passed away leaving a void that will be very hard to fill.
66-year-old Arun Jaitely was suffering from diabetes for a long time. In 2014, he underwent a weight-loss surgery and suffered many complications because of it. In 2016, he was detected with Kidney failure and had a Kidney transplant. Then in January he was detected with a rare form of cancer. For this he went to the USA for treatment. He returned to India and was doing well. However a lung infection made his situation worse and was hospitalised.On 24th August, Saturday afternoon he died after he suffered his third Cardiac arrest after being revived twice.
This is a very big loss for the BJP party and the Modi government. In the past he has held many Ministerial posts such as Information & Broadcasting (I&B), Commerce, Law & Justice, etc. His last was as the Finance Minister during Modi’s first PM tenure. He has had an excellent career as a lawyer and as a politician. He worked for 45 years. From 1975 to 1977 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had declared a state of emergency declared across the country. To protest the Emergency, Arun Jaitley gathered a group of people and burnt an effigy of Indira Gandhi. He was arrested and sent to jail for 19-months. This is when he became famous for his political views.
He was famous for his problem solving skills for the BJP. He used to give strong speeches in the parliament, where both sides respected his opinions. He was very close to PM Modi. Whenever there was a sensitive political issues, PM Modi always consulted Jaitley. On the day of his swearing-in ceremony, PM Modi visited Jaitely to convince him to become the Finance Minister again. However Jaitely, because of his bad health he would not be able to work well.
Jaitley was a great debater, conversationalist, foodie and loved reading about history. His friends say that he was a very kind man. PM Modi kept visiting Jaitley when he was in the hospital. When he passed away, Pm Modi was in Bahrain, UAE. Jaitely’s wife and son told PM Modi he must carry on with his work in Bahrain and at the G7 summit in France. During his speech in Bahrain, Modi said that he can not imagine that he is so far and his friend has gone.
PM Modi said that he has lost a close friend who was extremely intelligent. Modi is very sad and will miss him very much. Jaitley was cremated on Sunday afternoon in Delhi where thousands of people came to pay their respects.
