while pursuing his more material interests such as collecting expensive pens watches and luxury carshowever his stint in the modi10 government was affected by his frequent bouts of ill health that even led him to take a short sabbatical last year he took a threemonth break to undergo a kidney transplant and this year he was forced to travel to the us for treatment depriving him of the opportunity to present the sixth and final budget of the modi governments first terma moderate jaitley has friends across the political spectrum and is one of indias most articulate and influential leaders who brought civility to public discourse irrespective of whether one agreed with his position or notseveral ministers such as nirmala sitharaman piyush goyal and dharmendra pradhan are believed to have been his proteges all party spokespersons flocked to him for advicewhile environment minister prakash javadekar once called him a super strategist modi described him as a precious diamond at an election rally in amritsar from where jaitley contested and lost his first election in 2014 still jaitley retained his fondness for amritsari chole and kulchaas the quintessential insider in the capitals political arena he was the darling of the media with whom he was so open that he was sometimes accused of being indiscreet and too candid for his own goodmodi and jaitley go back a long way when modi an rss pracharak was appointed a bjp general secretary in the late 90s in delhi he stayed in an annex of jaitleys official bungalow on 9 ashoka roadhe is believed to have been part of the move to oust then gujarat chief minister keshubhai patel and install modi he backed modi as chief minister during the outcry over the 2002 riots in gujarat when support from other bjp leaders in delhi was not so unwaveringson of a successful lawyer who had migrated from lahore after partition jaitley studied law and became president of the delhi university students union when indira gandhi declared emergency he spent 19 months in prison for organising a massive protest at the university campusafter the emergency he began practicing law and in 1980 challenged the move by jagmohan then lieutenant governor of delhi to demolish the indian express building which brought him in close contact with ramnath goenka arun shourie and fali narimanthis association brought him to the notice of v p singh who upon becoming the prime minister appointed jaitley as additional solicitor general one of the youngest ever to hold the postwhen the national democratic alliance nda first came to power in 1999 jaitley was appointed minister by vajpayee and over the years handled law information and broadcasting disinvestment shipping and industry portfoliosin 2006 he became the leader of the opposition in the rajya sabha and earned the respect of many congressmen because of his clarity quick thinking and a phenomenal memorywatch arun jaitley was an asset to the party to the nation rajnath singh