India's former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley died on August 24, 2019 . He was 67 years old. He was born in 1952 to parents who had migrated to Delhi from Lahore. His father, Maharaj Kishen Jaitley, was a lawyer. A law graduate from the University of Delhi himself, Mr. Jaitley also graduated in commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce.
Obituary | Arun Jaitley: A man who played many roles
His political life and legal career spanned more than 40 years. He was under preventive detention for 19 months during the Emergency in 1975-77, first in the Ambala Jail and then in the Tihar Jail, Delhi.
Mr. Jaitley started his journey with the BJP in 1980 after having been an ABVP student activist during his college years.
Mr. Jaitley married Sangeeta Dogra, daughter of former J&K Finance Minister Girdhari Lal Dogra, in 1982.
Appointed the Additional Solicitor General of India in 1990, he was entrusted with the Bofors case. In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government he held the portfolios of Commerce and Industry, Law and Justice and Information and Broadcasting. Mr. Jaitley was the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha in 2009, when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister.
In the same year, he was elected the Vice President of the BCCI. He made vital contributions in discussions on the Women Reservation Bill and supported the Jan Lokpal Bill. Mr. Jaitley was the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs between 2014 and 2019. He has also served as the Minister of Defence under Narendra Modi.
Mr. Jaitley has been ailing for a while because of which he could not present the 2018-19 Union Budget and the 2019-20 Interim Budget. He also did not contest the Lok Sabha elections 2019 for the same reason. Arun Jaitley is survived by his wife and children, Rohan and Sonali, who are both lawyers.
