DHAKA: The Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign slogan may have been Abki baar, Modi sarkar, but, as Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi jocularly told Arun Jaitley in Parliament's Central Hall, the reality is "Abki baar, Jaitley sarkar".
Jaitley, 61, is at the centre of politics in New Delhi. The most powerful leader after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he runs two heavyweight ministries - finance and defence - his people are in charge of key portfolios, and he has a big say in policy and political matters.
All party spokespersons flock to him for advice. He is Modi's ace troubleshooter on almost all issues. A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker describes him as Modi's Chanakya (like Chandragupta's advisor, Jaitley is a Brahmin).
Environment and Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar calls him a "super strategist". If somebody knows how to work the levers of power in Raisina Hill it is Jaitley; Modi is still an outsider.
"A precious diamond," is how Modi described him at an election rally in Amritsar from where Jaitley contested - and lost - his first election ever.
Naturally, Jaitley is busy. His office in North Block is abuzz with activity, which is not surprising because this is Budget time. And expectations are high, though the government's finances are in a mess.
Even otherwise, ministerial colleagues like Nirmala Sitharaman (commerce & industry) and Piyush Goyal (power) rush to him for guidance. Modi depends on Jaitley's sharp legal mind for taking critical decisions, says a source.
He has even met Delhi & District Cricket Association (he is the chief patron) functionaries six times in the last month or so.
So busy is he that when Modi visited the country's largest warship, INS Vikramaditya, in Goa, Jaitley, the defence minister, couldn't play host: he was in Jammu & Kashmir to take care of some urgent matter.
His parents were from Punjab. His father, Maharaj Kishen Jaitley, a lawyer, came from Lahore, while his mother, Ratan Prabha, belonged to Amritsar.
The couple was in Amritsar expecting their first child, Jaitley's older sister, when the Partition riots broke out. The family decided to stay on in India. Later, they moved to Naraina Vihar in Delhi into a house vacated by a Muslim family that had left for Pakistan.
Jaitley's father restarted his legal practice. He sent his son to St Xavier's, a missionary school, and later to the prestigious Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC).
"That's where I first met him in 1972," recalls Raian Karanjawala, senior advocate and founder of Karanjawala & Company. "We used to debate together. He was the college union president - smart, articulate and a good debater."
Briefly from rediff.com
BDST: 1340 HRS, JUL 06, 2014
