Home Minister Amit Shah pays tribute to Arun Jaitley at his residence. (Source: Twitter/Amit Shah)Senior doctors at AIIMS, where Arun Jaitley was admitted to the Cardio-Neuro Centre on August 9 following complaints of breathlessness, on Saturday said the former Union minister’s medical condition deteriorated late Friday night.
“He suffered multiple cardiac arrests in the morning, after which a team of doctors tried to revive him,” a senior doctor said, adding that they failed to revive him. Arun Jaitley funeral LIVE UPDATES
In a statement on Saturday, AIIMS said, “It is with profound grief that we inform about the sad demise of Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Member of Parliament & Former Finance Minister at 12:07 pm…”
Political leaders arrived at AIIMS soon after the hospital announced his death. From Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani to former minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Congress leaders such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, they all stood with the family. Around 3.30 pm, the body reached the family’s residence in south Delhi’s Kailash Colony. Among the first to arrive there was Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly and senior BJP leader Vijender Gupta, who was also present at AIIMS. Recalling his association with Jaitley during their Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) days, Gupta said, “He was a mentor figure for me. My political career would not have started but for him. I was around 20 years old, aspiring to contest the DUSU polls, but some court cases were coming in the way. On a Sunday, he (Jaitley) opened his chamber, which was then near Sis Ganj Sahib Gurudwara in Chandni Chowk, and got a petition filed in court. I could contest the polls because of that…”
President Ramnath Kovind, Home Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah, Union ministers Harsh Vardhan, Jitendra Singh and BJP working president J P Nadda, party MPs Vijay Goel and Manoj Tiwari, among others, offered floral tributes at the family’s residence.
Goel also recalled his association with Jaitley in 1971, during the DUSU polls while in Sri Ram College of Commerce. “We were part of the same team in which he was DUSU president and I was the general secretary…. We took out a rally during the Emergency under his leadership,” he said.
The last rites will be performed at Nigambodh Ghat in Delhi on Sunday.
