Arun Jaitley dies at 66.
Arun Jaitley, the former finance minister and a stalwart of the Bharatiya Janata Party, passed away on Saturday at AIIMS hospital in New Delhi. He was 66 years old.
Jaitley, known as a consensus builder, was the BJP's man for all seasons and acted as the key strategist for the Narendra Modi government in its first term. He helmed the finance, defence, corporate affairs and information and broadcasting ministries.
New Delhi: Arun Jaitley, who as finance minister ushered in India's biggest tax reforms and was the chief trouble-shooter for the BJP and the Narendra Modi government, died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here on Saturday after battling multiple health issues for the last several months. He was 66.
In a brief statement, the hospital said Jaitley breathed his last at 12.07 pm. He was admitted to the hospital on August 9 following a complaint of breathing difficulty.
I couldn’t but help recall our conversation in Parliament House when he spoke to me last on phone from his sick bed. That was the day after he wrote, and made public, a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which he opted out of his Cabinet on health grounds.
Didn’t I do the right thing, he asked about his letter to the Prime Minister. I replied in the affirmative, saying he has put at rest the speculation over his inclusion in the ministerial team of Modi 2.0. How is your health, I asked. “I have faith in God and in my doctors,” he replied. The comment summed up his persona: the modernist with faith in science, the traditionalist with obeisance to the divine.
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