Tribute to 'economic uniter' of India! Nitish Kumar unveils statue of Arun Jaitley on his 67th birth anniversary
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New Delhi, December 28: Today is the 67th birth anniversary of the excellent leader, ace parliamentarian, erudite orator, veteran economist and a kind human being Arun Jaitley. Despite early death, he is one of the exceptional leaders who still lives in the hearts of every Indian! Bihar CM Nitish Kumar today unveiled the statue of Arun Jaitley on the occasion of his birth anniversary.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today unveiled a statue of former Union Minister Arun Jaitley in Patna in the presence of Jaitley's family and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi. Jaitley died on August 24 after a prolonged illness. The chief minister of Bihar had announced that the birth anniversary of Jaitley would be celebrated as a state function every year. Earlier, the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) announced to rename the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium as the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
During his early political life, Jaitley was a prominent leader of a movement against corruption launched by Jayaprakash Narayan in 1973. The movement had its origins from Bihar. During the Emergency period from 1975–77, he was under preventive detention for 19 months.
Jaitey rose as a student leader during the Emergency. A lawyer by profession, he practised law in the Supreme Court and represented L. K. Advani, Sharad Yadav and Madhavrao Scindia in court. He was at the forefront in the investigations into the Bofors scandal. In 1999, Arun Jaitley was appointed the national spokesperson of the BJP. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government came to power in 1999, he was made the Minister of State for Disinvestment (Independent Charge). He also took over as the Union Cabinet Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs after Ram Jethmalani resigned in 2000.
In 2009, Jaitley was chosen as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. In 2014, it was for the first time that he fought a direct election. However, he lost from the Amritsar seat on the BJP ticket. The BJP came to power in 2014 and Arun Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs in Modi’s cabinet.
It was Arun Jaitley who successfully implemented ‘one nation, one tax, one market’ throughout India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had once said that the way Sardar Patel unified the country by getting princely states to agree to accede to India, Jaitley unified the country economically by implementing the GST.
Arun Jaitley laid the roadmap for direct tax reforms and extensively worked toward opening up the economy by easing out foreign direct investment (FDI) rules. Besides, Jaitley was instrumental in bringing in several changes in the company law, bank recapitalisation process, monetary policy framework.