Arun Jaitley

Arun Jaitley (born December 28, 1952, New Delhi, India—died August 24, 2019, New Delhi) was an Indian lawyer, politician, and government official who served as leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Rajya Sabha (upper chamber of the Indian parliament) in 2009–14. In 2014 he joined the cabinet of the BJP-led government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Jaitley was known as an eloquent speaker, and his political and professional career was largely noncontroversial.

Jaitley was born and raised in New Delhi, and his father was a successful lawyer. Jaitley completed a bachelor’s degree in commerce in 1973 and received a law degree in 1977, both from the University of Delhi. During his time at the university, he became a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the pro-Hindu organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In 1974 he was elected president of the student union at the university. He participated in demonstrations against the imposition of the state of emergency in 1975 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was arrested, and was held in detention for 19 months.

In 1977 Jaitley became the national convener of the Loktantrik Yova Morcha youth organization, which campaigned for Janata Party candidates that year. He joined the BJP after its formation in 1980. His career as a politician and a lawyer progressed simultaneously together. He served as additional solicitor general in the BJP-led government in 1989–90, during which time he was involved in some of the investigations into the scandal involving a Swedish weapons manufacturer accused of paying bribes to several high profile personalities, including Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

In 1991 Jaitley was included in the BJP’s national executive, the top decision-making body of the party. Prior to the 1999 parliamentary elections, he was appointed as the party’s spokesperson, a position he also held (along with the post of party general secretary) for several months in 2002–03. He served in a variety of ministerial posts in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition government (1999–2004), including minister of Law, Justice, and Company Affairs and minister of Commerce and Industry. After the NDA lost power in the 2004 elections, Jaitley was appointed as the BJP’s general secretary.

Jaitley was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2000, representing the state of Gujarat, and he was reelected in 2006 and 2012. During his first term he introduced bills for two amendments to the Indian constitution: the first (enacted in 2002) froze the number of seats in parliament until the year 2026 based on districting in the 1991 national census, and the second (2004) imposed penalties on members of parliament who defected from one party to another during their terms and limited the number of members of state ministry councils. In 2009 he was chosen as the leader of the BJP opposition in the upper house. He ceased practicing law following the appointment. In addition to his other duties, he served as the party’s campaign manager in several states over the years.

Jaitley unsuccessfully ran for a seat from Punjab state in the 2014 elections to the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the Indian parliament). Nonetheless, following the overwhelming BJP landslide victory at the polls, Jaitley was given responsibility for three important portfolios in Prime Minister Modi’s cabinet: defense, finance, and corporate affairs. In addition, Jaitley switched his role in the Rajya Sabha from leader of the opposition to leader of the house. Later in 2014, however, he stepped down as minister of defense, though he subsequently held the post in 2017. Despite a sweeping victory for the BJP in the 2019 elections, Jaitley announced that he would not serve in Modi’s second government due to his deteriorating health. He died months later in August.

In 2020 he was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honours.

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