Arun Jaitley
Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jaitley previously held the cabinet portfolios of Finance, Defence, Corporate Affairs, Commerce and Industry, and Law and Justice in the Vajpayee government and Narendra Modi government.
Arun Jaitley | |
|---|---|
Official Portrait, 2014 | |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 26 May 2014 – 30 May 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | P. Chidambaram |
| Succeeded by | Nirmala Sitharaman |
| Minister of Corporate Affairs | |
| In office 26 May 2014 – 30 May 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Sachin Pilot |
| Succeeded by | Nirmala Sitharaman |
| Minister of Defence | |
| In office 13 March 2017 – 3 September 2017 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Manohar Parrikar |
| Succeeded by | Nirmala Sitharaman |
| In office 26 May 2014 – 9 November 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | A. K. Antony |
| Succeeded by | Manohar Parrikar |
| Minister of Information and Broadcasting | |
| In office 9 November 2014 – 5 July 2016 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Prakash Javadekar |
| Succeeded by | Venkaiah Naidu |
| 26th Leader of the House, Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 26 May 2014 – 11 June 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Manmohan Singh |
| Succeeded by | Thawar Chand Gehlot |
| Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 3 June 2009 – 26 May 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Jaswant Singh |
| Succeeded by | Ghulam Nabi Azad |
| Minister of Law and Justice | |
| In office 29 January 2003 – 22 May 2004 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Jana Krishnamurthi |
| Succeeded by | H. R. Bhardwaj |
| In office 23 July 2000 – 1 July 2002 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Ram Jethmalani |
| Succeeded by | Jana Krishnamurthi |
| Minister of Commerce and Industry | |
| In office 29 January 2003 – 22 May 2004 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Arun Shourie |
| Succeeded by | Kamal Nath |
| Minister of Information and Broadcasting | |
| In office 13 October 1999 – 30 September 2000 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Pramod Mahajan |
| Succeeded by | Sushma Swaraj |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 3 April 2000 – 24 August 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Naresh Agrawal |
| Succeeded by | Sudhanshu Trivedi |
| Constituency |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 December 1952 Delhi, India |
| Died | 24 August 2019 (aged 66) New Delhi, India |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Spouse |
Sangeeta Jaitley
(m. 1982–2019) |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Delhi (B.Com) Faculty of Law, University of Delhi (LL.B) |
| Occupation |
|
| Awards | Padma Vibhushan (2020) (posthumously) |
| Website | arunjaitley |
From 2009 to 2014, he served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. He was a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India. He oversaw the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax which brought the country under one GST regime, demonetisation, merger of Railway budget with general budget and introduction of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Jaitley decided not to join the second Modi Cabinet in 2019, due to health issues.
He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, posthumously in 2020 in the field of Public Affairs.