Arun Jaitley

A Distinguished Lawyer and An Erudite Parliamentarian

- Kalyani Buche

Arun Jaitley was born on 28th December 1952, in Delhi, to Maharaj Kishen Jaitley who was a lawyer and mother Ratan Prabha Jaitley. He studied at St Xavier’s School, Delhi from 1957-69. He graduated with the honour’s degree in commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi in 1973. He passed his LL.B degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, in 1977. Arun Jaitley married Sangeeta, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister, Girdhari Lal Dogra, in May 1982.

Arun Jaitley was a born politician. He was the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) student leader at the Delhi University Campus in the seventies and rose to become the President of the Students Union of Delhi University in 1974. During the period of proclamation of Internal Emergency (1975-77), when the fundamental rights in India were suspended, he was under a preventive detention for a period of 19 months. He was one of the prominent leaders of a movement against corruption launched in the year 1973 by Raj Narain and Jayaprakash Narayan. Also, he was the convener of the National Committee for Students and Youth organization appointed by Jai Prakash Narayan. He remained active in civil rights movement and helped find PUCL Bulletin along with Satish Jha and Smitu Kothari. He joined the Jan Sangh after his release from the jail.

In 1977, being the convener of the Loktantrik Yuva Morcha, at a time when the Congress suffered defeat, Jaitley was appointed the President of the Delhi ABVP and All India Secretary of the ABVP. He was then made the President of the youth wing of the BJP and the Secretary of the Delhi Unit in 1980, a short time after joining the party.