The Governor of Uttarakhand, Baby Rani Maurya, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and many other personalities of the State have expressed grief on the death of former Union Finance Minister and BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley. The former Union Minister breathed his last at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi on Saturday.
In her statement, the Governor of Uttarakhand said that Jaitley was a popular leader, able administrator, eloquent speaker and a famous legal luminary. Expressing profound grief, Maurya said that she prays to God to give peace to the departed soul of the Jaitley and give strength to the grieving family members of the late leader. She added that Jaitley held high standards in public life and his death is an irreparable loss to the nation.
In his message, the CM Rawat said that he entreat god to provide solace to the grief stricken family members of the late leader.
Terming Jaitley as a strong pillar of cabinets of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and PM Modi, Rawat said that apart from an acclaimed speaker, legal expert and able administer, he was a popular leader. Remembering his tenure as Finance Minister, CM Rawat said that historic and path breaking decisions like implementation of ‘One tax system’ and putting a check on corruption were taken by him. He added that Jaitley played a major role in strengthening the democracy in the country.
As a mark of respect to the departed leader, the Uttarakhand Government has declared one day of State mourning on Sunday. On the day, the national flag on all the buildings would fly at half mast.
Meanwhile, the State unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has cancelled all its programmes as a mark of respect to the departed leader. The party has also postponed the workshop for organisation election scheduled on Sunday.
The president of state unit of BJP and MP, Ajay Bhatt said that death of Jaitley is a great loss to the country and BJP.
He said Jaitley had great affection for Uttarakhand and it was he who released the vision document of the party before the Vidhan Sabha elections of 2017. Bhatt added that strong and path breaking decisions like demonetisation, GST and merger of banks were taken during his tenure as Finance Minister of the country.