Praise normally follows when a leader dies. But, the profusion of praise after the demise of Arun Jaitley was well-deserved. A veteran leader, Jaitley had qualities of both head and heart – with an exemplary parliamentary performance matched by his strengths as a lawyer, complemented by his personal relations cutting across party barriers. His demise is a loss to the nation, to the ruling BJP and to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular.
Jaitley had a long innings in politics, having started with the Jayaprakash Narayan movement in the 1970s while as a law student with Delhi University, going to jail to protest the Emergency, and eventually casting his lot with the Jan Sangh, the Janata Party and later the BJP. He was minister in the Vajpayee ministry and returned to government in a stronger position in the first Modi dispensation. All along, he conducted himself with great dignity, a class that was special to him, and avoided indulging in the pastime of pulling others’ legs.
Jaitley believed in cooperation, not in confrontation, as was exemplified in his close relations with and support to PM Modi at a time when several other senior leaders had reservations about supporting the Gujarat strongman. Jaitley’s parliamentary interventions displayed his grasp of Constitutional law and finer elements of democratic governance. His term as finance minister was also marked by demonetization with its ill effects on the economy, but perceptions are that the push for it came from PM Modi’s inner circle and that Jaitley fell in line, never blaming anyone else for what went wrong. It requires character of a high order to resist temptations to shift blame on others. Jaitley quietly worked to set things back in order.
He remained as a source of great strength to PM Modi from day one. In Modi’s second term, Jaitley’s absence will be strongly felt. Jaitley had both class and composure. He handled difficult subjects in parliament with relative ease and often blunted the edge of Opposition offensives against the government with a great display of logic in his arguments. Little wonder, then, that he was a highly successful lawyer at the Supreme Court.
While the general public has reservations about the Sangh Parivar as a whole including BJP leaders for their perceived communal slants, Jaitley steered clear of such obsessions. He built bridges with BJP’s political rivals. His performance in Rajya Sabha during the UPA period showed his strengths in consensus-building. He leaves behind a great legacy but also a vacuum that will be difficult to fill.