'Arun Jaitley brought felicity to public discourse': PM Modi remembers late BJP leader

Arun Jaitley had the rare quality of being able to simplify complex issues and brought felicity to public discourse, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a foreword of a new book on the former finance minister.

In the foreword of the book 'A New India', which was released on the occasion of his death anniversary on Wednesday, the Prime Minister wrote that Jaitley was a multi-faceted personality - a friend to many, an excellent legal mind, an effective minister and a consummate communicator.

The forword was written by Modi on November 19, 2019. 

The book is a compilation of selected writings between 2014-2019 by late Arun Jaitley.

Jaitley, the first finance minister of the Modi government, died on August 24, 2019, at the age of 66 years.

"There is one side of Mr Jaitley that stands out as extremely important because there have been very few like him. As a public intellectual with an immense grasp on policy issues, he brought a unique quality of felicity to public discourse that is very important for a vibrant democracy," Modi wrote.

Stating that only a few have a natural interest in complex policy issues and a fewer who can grasp them, he said those who can reduce complex issues and explain them in a simple manner are rarest of the rare. "Arun Jaitley, in this aspect, was one of his kind".

The Prime Minister lauded Jaitley for bringing a unique point of view to debates and for his brilliant analyses.

On the blogs that Jaitley wrote beginning September 2013, he said, "Unsparing of the UPA's misgovernance, he wrote about the ruling coalition's leadership crisis, their economic mismanagement, and corruption".

As the 2014 general elections approached, his writing became more prolific.

He recalled Jaitley's blogs on the revocation of Article 370 in J-K of November 2013 and his final blog in August 2019 on the same subject.

"For any youth looking to imbibe the importance of understanding public policy, Arun Jaitley's blog is a goldmine. The sheer range of issues he elaborated upon, there was something valuable in every blog," he said.

As a minister, Jaitley was one of the most reliable voices to pierce through the fog and make important points on the outlook of the government, he said.

"Personally speaking, reading Arun Jaitley's blog makes me nostalgic about the loss of not only a friend but also a brilliant mind that always put its intellect in the service of the nation," Modi concluded.