Home Minister Amit Shah Spends Over 3 Hours at Arun Jaitley's Residence

New Delhi: BJP President Amit Shah on Saturday spent around three and a half hours at the Kailash Colony residence of former finance minister Arun Jaitley, who passed away at AIIMS.

Shah said Jaitley was a crusader against corruption and credited him for taking the Jan Dhan Yojana to the masses, demonetisation and the successful implementation of the GST.

"The pain of losing Arun Jaitley is unbearable for the entire country and the BJP workers. Since the 1970s Shri Arun Jaitley has worked in the political field of this country. During the Emergency he was in jail for 19 months as a student leader.

"As a brilliant advocate in the Supreme Court he dealt with a lot of public issues through law, raised his voice in many corruption cases. He has had a huge contribution. Even as an MP he had been voice of the people and a crusader against corruption," Shah said.

"Parliament has lost a frank and versatile speaker, the Supreme Court has lost its most brilliant lawyer and the BJP has lost one of its tallest leaders. Personally, for me, whenever I have had a personal issue, he was there beside me, gave me strength. He played this role in the lives of many BJP workers," he said.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan too spent hours beside the family of the deceased leader.

Clad in a blue shirt and black pants, head bowed and bare feet, Vardhan stood stoic at the gates of Jaitley's residence, as mourners came and went.

Vardhan, who had arrived at the AIIMS early to enquire about Jaitley's health, spent hours at the hospital after the senior leader passed away, tending to the family's needs.

He was there when Jaitley's body was taken in an ambulance on its last journey home.

At Jaitley's residence, occasionally, Vardhan accompanied senior leaders to their cars as they left, only to come back to stand beside the gate.

"It's no big deal," he said, when asked, as hours rolled by and he stood hands held behind his back, moving only to nod at mourners arriving or leaving Jaitley's residence.

The health minister also laid a wreath on the mortal remains of Jaitley, on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, who had been a close associate of Jaitley in the BJP, returned from Chennai and drove straight to Jaitley's residence to pay his respects to the union minister.