India’s former finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley has died in the capital, New Delhi, at the age of 66, the hospital where he was seeking treatment has announced.
Arun Jaitley was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital in New Delhi nearly two weeks ago after he complained of breathing difficulties. Do click for more info about his financial mind and also the ways that he deals things with.
Jaitley did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections because of his ill-health. He had undergone renal transplant on May 14 last year with Piyush Goyal filling in for him in the finance ministry at the time. Jaitley, who had stopped attending office since early April 2018, was back in the finance ministry on August 23, 2018.
A lawyer by profession, Arun Jaitley had been an important part of Narendra Modi’s cabinet during his first tenure as prime minister. He held the Finance and Defence portfolios, and often acted as the chief troubleshooter of the government.
“It is with profound grief that we inform about the sad demise of Shri Arun Jaitley, honourable member of parliament and former finance minister,” AIIMS said in a statement.
Jaitley was a diabetic and had bariatric weight-loss surgery in 2014, received a kidney transplant in 2018 and travelled to the United States last January for unspecified medical care.
The lawyer-turned-politician also had triple heart-bypass surgery when he was 52.
The BJP lost another veteran party leader and former minister of external affairs when Sushma Swaraj died after a cardiac arrest earlier this month.