Former Finance Minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley died on Saturday. He was 66. He was admitted to AIIMS hospital in Delhi on August 9 after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness.
A lawyer by profession, Jaitley had been an important part in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet during his first tenure and held finance and defence portfolios. During his tenure, demonetisation and GST both flagship programs of the BJP were implemented. He was supposed to be the architect of demonetisation in India.
In May this year, shortly after the BJP came back to power with a thumping majority, he had refused to be part of the new cabinet citing health condition.
Jaitley had undergone renal transplant on May 14 last year with Piyush Goyal filling in for him in the finance ministry at that time too. Jaitley, who had stopped attending office since early April 2018, was back in the finance ministry on August 23, 2018.
Earlier in September 2014, he underwent bariatric surgery to correct the weight he had gained because of a long-standing diabetic condition.
