Arun Jaitley (born 28 December 1952) is an Indian politician and lawyer who is the current Finance Minister, Minister of Corporate Affairs in the Cabinet of India. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley previously held the cabinet portfolios of Commerce and Industry and Law and Justice in the Vajpayee government (1998–2004) and briefly served as the Minister of Defence in the Narendra Modi government. From 2009 to 2014 he served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. He is a Senior Advocate of the Delhi High Court. He studied at St. Xavier's School, New Delhi from 1957–69.He graduated in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi in 1973. He passed his Law degree from the University of Delhi, in 1977.
Jaitley was an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) student leader in the Delhi University Campus in the seventies and rose to be the President of the Students Union of Delhi University in 1974. During the period of proclamation of Internal Emergency (1975–77) when civil liberties were suspended, he was under preventive detention for a period of 19 months.[10] He was a prominent leader of a movement against corruption launched in the year 1973 by Raj Narain and Jayaprakash Narayan. He was the Convenor of the National Committee for Students and Youth organisation appointed by Jai Prakash Narayan. He was also active in civil rights movement and helped found PUCL Bulletin along with Satish Jha and Smitu Kothari. After being released from jail he joined the Jan Sangh.
In 1977, being the convener of the Loktantric Yuva Morcha at a time when the Congress suffered defeat, Jaitley was appointed the president of the Delhi ABVP and All India Secretary of the ABVP. He was then made the president of the youth wing of the BJP and the secretary of the Delhi Unit in 1980, a short time after joining the party.
