‘Arun Jaitely had elephant’s memory’; ‘he was mentor to many, none like him in any party’
Photo credit Siddharth Nath Singh
Former Uttar Pradesh Minister and legislator Siddharth Nath Singh speaks to Manish Anand on his memories of former Union Minister Arun Jaitely, who was mentor to several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders.
Qn. How do you recall Arun Jaitely?
SNS: My first acquaintance with Jaitely Saab was when (M) Venkaiah Naidu became the party (BJP) president, and I was still in the youth wing. I just opened the Venkaiah ji’s room and Arun Jaitely was sitting out there. While I was closing the door back, Jaitely Saab called and asked me to sit beside him. He enquired about me, and I gave my background, except one, that I’m the grandson of (former prime minister) Lal Bahadur Shastri. He came to know about this somewhere around 2003-04. He was very surprised, why I hadn’t shared the lineage.
Six-eight months had gone by when I picked up an issue on Volcker account, and I spoke to Jaitely Saab and told him that he should do a press conference on the issue. He was not very keen, as he said he would be very busy in the court, but afterwards he asked me to prepare a note.
I prepared a half page note. He was unhappy. “This is all that you wanted,” he said.
But he spoke on the issue in a very short press conference.
The next day when he saw the newspapers he was very happy, as the issue was well covered. The Volcker account issue had come to the limelight and eventually (former external affairs minister) Natwar Singh had to resign.
Qn. How do you see the absence of Arun Jaitely in today’s time as far as media and party dialogue is concerned?
SNS: I think one thing that is there is that his articulation is missing. I don’t see this in any of the political parties.
Secondly, he had relations with everybody in all the political parties. They were friends to him. His fraternity included the lawyers and judges all over India. He had something that was elephant’s memory.
So, this kind of quality, I don’t seen in any of the politicians. As a human being he was just fantastic.
I will say that I became one of the closest boys to him, and I miss him a lot.
Qn. Can you recall any two instances when he handled them for the BJP on which the party was on the back foot?
SNS: Well, there are many instances where he was able to articulate and bring the BJP out of the crises. I think one of the big challenges the party faced was when we lost the elections in 2004 and particularly in 2009.
Then there was a crisis in the BJP on the leadership issue. He dealt with this and the words that he articulated on the issue in press conferences was very convincing for the media.
People were pushing us on the back foot on the leadership issue.
Questions were like, you have after Advani and Vajpayee so many leaders and you all will be fighting against each other, so who’s your leader. In Congress, the leadership issue is established.
There he articulated and said: “I think, we are lucky that we are democratic that in this BJP there are not one but four and the party gets the choice to select one out of the four or five, and that’s democracy, as whoever is best will get selected, and we don’t know who is going to be our next president. That’s democracy, unlike Congress or any other party, as we know who is going to be their president.”
There were many instances when he was able to take the political fight to the other side such as during the CWG, Coal scams, etc.
The way he used to explain the issues, the common men understood. Big words don’t make common men understand (issues), but how you simplify or the simplification of the issue that Arun Jaitely Saab was doing, I think that made the people understand, that yes, there’s a scam, that this government needs to go and the Congress is related to the scams.
Qn. Arun Jaitely was also a big mentor in the BJP, and he groomed many leaders within the party. How do you recall him as a mentor, and do you see anyone in that role in any of the political parties?
SNS: There aren’t any like Arun Jaitely in any of the political parties, and I don’t see there would be one as long as I’m in politics. But certainly he was my mentor. He was mentor to many of my colleagues who are Cabinet Ministers like Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal…there are a number of them.
Qn. Arun Jaitely was the mainstay during the first term of the Modi government. What is the lasting legacy that he has left?
SNS: I think the lasting legacy that he has left is the way he handled demonetization, GST, bankruptcy law that he brought in…there are a number of them which will remind of his legacy.
Qn. In the Parliament, Arun Jaitely was a highly appreciated debater; do you think that there is a vacuum now in that space?
SNS: He had a style. When Prime Minister (Modi) stands up, he occupies the space which is unoccupied by anybody. I will not say that Arun Jaitely was the only one. There are many debaters. For that matter, it would be unfair to compare anybody with Atal ji. But Arun Jaitely had a different style. That style perhaps is not with anybody. If you speak to any of the Parliamentarians of his time, they will say, “I wish he was still around with us”.
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