Commemorating the birth anniversary of BJP stalwart and late former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Home Minister Amit Shah unveiled his statue at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium here on Monday.
Remembering the iconic leader, shah said that Jaitley was an ‘outstanding personality’ known in the political arena for his sportsman’s spirit.
“It is a great privilege for me today and a matter of pleasure that I got the opportunity to unveil the statue of Arun Jaitley in this stadium where the historic moments of Indian cricket have been lived, have been in memory and history will be created for decades to come,” said Shah.
“He was an outstanding personality known in the political arena for having Sportsman's spirit. His specialty was to contribute in many fields at the same time and to take the tasks to the completion regardless of time frame,” said Home Minister. Shah recalled that Jaitley went to Jail for 19 months during Emergency when the ‘democracy of the country was severely attacked’. “He was associated with politics since college life and when the democracy of the country was severely attacked and Indira Gandhi declared Emergency, then as a youth president of Delhi University, Arun Ji was in jail for 19 months and strongly opposed the Emergency,” said Shah. “Be it the strategy of Gujarat elections or preparing the team for the same, Arun Ji always used to take everyone along. He also served the post of Leader of Opposition for 10 years and he had proven ability to keep his opinion firmly on any issue, answer aggressively while maintaining decency and without hurting the dignity of the Parliament, making sure that ruling party got the message loud and clear,” said Shah.
“Arun Jaitley always strongly raised the voice of the public. It was because of his role in the Opposition that Prime Minister Narendra Modi got an absolute majority in 2014 and formed the BJP government. He was a close friend of Modi ji and led the most important ministry when Modi ji became the Prime Minister. The pace of economic recovery accelerated during Jaitley’s time, which the country will remember for centuries,” he said.
Further remembering the late icon he said, “There are two important events that gave a new direction to the Indian cricket, firstly when it was decided to sell the rights of the match which gave an opportunity to the Indian cricket to move forward and the second when the IPL was started, the cricket lovers and I had a lot of questions in the mind and Arun Jaitley ji had exact answer to every question, without any confusion as he prepared a strong IPL blueprint, as a result of which the IPL is on track and cricket emerged as employment platform for thousands of youth.”