Suave, affable, articulate - Arun Jaitley was all combined. For many years, especially Arun Jaitley remained Atal Bihari Vajpayee's troubleshooter. With his knowledge of law and understanding of politics, Jaitley established himself as the man who could manage things in the backroom while also present party's view to media and public with elan.
Here's a compilation of 22 interesting facts about Arun Jaitley:
1. Arun Jaitley was born on 28 December 1952 in the family of Maharaja Kishen Jaitley and Ratan Prabha Jaitley in New Delhi. On 24 May 1982, he married to Sangeeta Jaitley and has a son Rohan and a daughter Sonali.
2. Arun Jaitley did his schooling at St. Xavier's School, New Delhi from 1960-69.
3. Arun Jaitley completed his graduation in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce and did his post-graduation in Law from the Delhi Unversity.
4. Jaitley held various political positions like Finance Minister, Minister of Defence, Minister of Corporate Affairs, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha, Minister of Law and Justice, and Leader of the House, Rajya Sabha
5. During the proclamation of Internal Emergency (1975-77) civil liberties were suspended and Jaitley was also placed under preventive detention first in the Ambala Jail and then in the Tihar Jail, Delhi. In 1977, he was the convener of the Loktantric Yuva Morcha.
6. Arun Jaitley joined Jan Sangh and became Delhi President of ABVP and also All India Secretary of ABVP.
7. He was Chief Strategy planner of BJP for the 2014 election and was one of the reasons for the massive victory.
8. Arun Jaitley was fond of cricket and he had also served as president of DDCA and also a Vice-President of BCCI before resigning in 2014.
9. In June 1998, Arun Jaitley was a delegate on behalf of the Government of India to the United Nations General Assembly Session where decisions regarding Declaration on laws relating to Drugs and money laundering was approved.
10. Virendra Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are his favourite cricketers.
11. Arun Jaitley stopped practising law in around 2009.
12. In 2014, he contested direct election for the first time but lost to Congress Leader Amrindar Singh from Amritsar seat.
13. He has also appeared on behalf of Multi-national giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsico in India.
14. Under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, BJP was working hard and Arun Jaitley was given the task to transform youth brigade of BJP into mature politicians. He also looked up to Atal Bihari Vajpayee who constantly inspired him.
15. Arun Jaitley also practised in Supreme Court of India.
16. Arun Jaitley proved his worth very well. He became chief strategist of BJP after the death of Pramod Mahajan and Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s retirement.
17. When Arun Jaitley was the Finance Minister, Modi Government was able to take some crucial economic initiatives like demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST).
18. During Jaitley's supervision, the Modi government merged the Railway Budget with the General Budget.
19. For resolving the issues with companies, he introduced insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. In recent times, IBC played a crucial role in the corporate sector.
20. In the Delhi High Court, he was designated as a Senior Advocate in January 1990. In 1989, he was appointed as an Additional Solicitor General.
21. He set up Advocates Welfare Fund and Investor Protection Fund.
22. In 2002, Arun Jaitley successfully introduced the 84th amendment of the Constitution of India for freezing parliamentary seats till 2026.
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