The best brain in the country, Arun Jaitley leaves behind a void in many lives, writes Jitendra Singh

What Arun Jaitley meant to me is a question which I may not be able to answer, even though, over the years, I have, on several occasions, sought an answer to it — from within myself.

Our deeply evolving relationship was possibly triggered by a destined decree. For years together, I was closely associated with the activities and programmes of the Sangh Parivar and was also a Core Committee Member of Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti, which spearheaded the Amarnath land agitation, with full organisational backing but I was never a formal party member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), nor did I ever envisage myself in that role. The turning point came, rather dramatically.

One February afternoon, while sitting in his 9 Ashoka Road chamber, Arun Jaitley suggested whether I was ready to formally take over the responsibility as a party office-bearer of the BJP, which also implied that I would have to tender my resignation from the post of professor of medicine in a medical college.

I must confess, I did not straightway respond in too many words but while leaving the room, I stood at the door, looked back at him and said, “Hope, that would not make a laughing stock of me”. He looked up, smiled and, a man of few words as he was, he said: “You will carve a niche for yourself.”

On my return, without much of consultation or discussion with my colleagues in the medical institute or members of my family, I quietly put in my papers for voluntary retirement and sought to embark on a new work routine wherein I would devote the latter part of the day to party work, and in the remaining part of the day make my living through private practice at my clinic.

Today, looking back, I feel tempted to ask myself, what, after all, gave me the confidence to give up a lucrative government job and join a political party that was, at that time, in opposition with little prospect of coming to power. More so, in Jammu & Kashmir, where I came from, it was rarely heard of that a government official in a senior position would take to active politics before completing their term of service, and even after retirement those who had an “itch” for politics would prefer to join Congress or some other non-BJP political party with prospects of possibly ruling in the state. Many of the colleagues and friends dissuaded me from taking the plunge, but now I realise, it was my confidence in the credibility and commitment of the words spoken by Arun Jaitley which emboldened me to go ahead — even if it was seen by many as a foolhardy plunge at that time. I am not sure whether I had faith in myself, but I had huge faith in Arun Jaitley.

In the topsy-turvy and need-based politics of today, Arun Jaitley had the commitment and capacity to stand up for a junior or a colleague if he was convinced about what he was doing. He could also take up cudgels for a colleague or a friend “in absentia” without the person concerned even being aware of it.

A word of appreciation or praise came rarely from him, but came in abundance when he actually meant it, and maybe, he was too discreet not to praise someone on the face. I would feel personally gratified, and more than that, highly flattered when a mutual acquaintance sometimes came and told me that, in the course of a conversation, Jaitley praised something that I did or said. On one occasion, a senior BJP leader told me during a BJP National Executive meeting, “Do you know, Arunji was saying, you are an ‘asset’ for the party?” How many of the contemporaries in politics would qualify to live up to such a generous compliment for a junior colleague is something one would hardly venture to guess. Jaitley was the best brain in the country, and the best brain I came across in my lifetime. But he was never conceited, and could indulge in mediocre or even routine gossip in order to relate with the other person by coming down to the latter’s level.

Jaitley was sometimes accused of not readily responding with a warm acknowledgement if a karyakarta passing by happened to wish him with a “namaskar”. But very few realised that even without responding through words or a smile, he had the knack that enabled him to scan the ins and outs of the individual with a passing glance, and form an opinion that would determine future bearings.

For me, for several years, Arun Jaitley had become the ultimate destination where the “buck stops”. I would often refer to him as a “single window” for any issue on earth because he was the one who had an answer to everything. Even before I shifted to Delhi, I would invariable call him on the phone every third day — the best time to do so, I learnt from my experience was from 8.30 am to 9.30am. After I shifted to Delhi, I would walk up to his North Block office at least once in the day, and his office staff too got used to my daily sojourn. Each day, I carried with me a small slip of paper with two or three issues jotted down, sometimes these related to official work, sometimes political, and sometimes even personal. His response was prompt, brief, precise, and always stood the test of time.

Jaitely had a special weakness for Jammu & Kashmir, also because he was married to a daughter of Jammu whose father Shri Girdhari Lal Dogra was a Congress stalwart and a close confident of Late Smt Indira Gandhi . Very few may recall that at the time of Arun Jaitley’s wedding, his baraat was accompanied by the BJP’s top national leadership of that time and it was received by the Congress’s top national leadership from the bride’s side.

The courage and conviction of Arun Jaitley is evident from the fact that the last blog he wrote on the August 6 was on the abrogation of Article 370, soon after the Bill was passed by Lok Sabha. I was in touch with him, virtually on a day-to-day basis, but since Parliament went on till late that day, I could not reach out to him. I received a phone call at around 8.45pm, when he said that he was writing a piece on Article 370 and wanted to check on one or two facts. What Arun Jaitley meant to me, is perhaps an enigma even to me. But, what I know for sure is that the void which he has left for me and many others like me, to whom he was a mentor, friend and guide, would be difficult to fill — at least in our lifetimes.