Arun Jaitley: The man who wrote prolifically to defend the Modi govt

Known for his eloquence with words, Jaitley made sure that he defended the government even if he stayed away from active politics owing to his illness. Jaitley wrote prolifically on GST, scrapping of Kashmir's special status among other issues. His blogs were razor sharp and laced with facts countering the opposition's charges stoutly.

Jaitley, who held the finance and defence portfolio in the first innings of the Modi government, passed away today after prolonged illness. He was admitted at AIIMS in New Delhi.

In his last blog, Jaitley put up a strong defence of the Modi government's decision on scrapping of Article 370. "A historical wrong has been undone today. Article 35A came through the back door withojut following the procedure under Article 368 of the Constitution of India. It had to go."


"Separate status led to separatism. No dynamic nation can allow this situation to continue," Jaitley added.

Jaitley took on the Congress for opposing the withdrawal of Kashmir's special status. "Congress Party, as a ‘headless chicken’, is further consolidating its alienation from the people of India. The New India has changed. Only the Congress does not realise this. The Congress leadership is determined to succeed in its race to the bottom," Jaitley wrote.

On triple talaq bill getting Parliament's nod, Jaitley took potshots at 'liberals' who didn't oppose the practice vehemently. He said," A ‘liberal’ should ordinarily be hostile to the idea of discrimination and injustice perpetuated by an oral divorce. In this case, not one spoke in favour of the Bill which is ending the injustice. They raised weak arguments so that the fundamentalists amongst the Muslims are kept happy."

On making triple talaq a criminal offence, Jaitley said,"The Supreme Court, by striking down the practice of “Triple Talaq”, has merely made a declaration of the law. This declaration has to be followed by a legislation which punishes the offending spouse for indulging in this cruel act despite it being declared unlawful."

In another blog, Jaitley welcomed the ICJ verdict on Kulbhushan Jadhav which held Pakistan guilty of violating the Vienna Convention by denying Jadhav consular access.


"The ICJ judgement in Jadhav case is a comprehensive victory for India. Pakistan lost conclusively before the ICJ. It’s farcical processes through which innocent are held guilty, stand exposed," Jaitley wrote.

Jaitley also congratulated Sitharaman for presenting the first Budget of the Modi government's second innings.

"The Budget presented by the Finance Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, is a policy document for the medium term. It is a budget of a continuing government, which has to accelerate the direction of the past. It expands the roadmap on which the Prime Minister has built up India’s growth story from 2014-19," Jaitley explained through his Facebook blogpost.

On the completion of two years of GST, Jaitley said that the indirect tax reform's implementation was compounded by the opposition from the not-so-well-informed. He praised the efforts of the states and Centre both of whom pooled their "fiscal rights in a collective forum to create one common market".

"After two years, one can confidently argue, without fear of contradiction that GST proved to be both consumer and assessee friendly. The high taxation of pre GST era pinched the consumers’ pocket and acted as a disincentive against tax compliance. The last two years have seen each of the meetings of the GST Council reducing the tax burden on consumers as the tax collections improved," Jaitley wrote in his blogpost.

Apart from the above mentioned issues, Jaitley kept contributing to the national discourse through his blogs and promoted government's ideas and also made a strong defence of its policies.