Family offers Jaitley’s pension to ‘most needy’ staff in Rajya Sabha

NEWDELHI: Former Union minister Arun Jaitley’s wife has written to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, seeking that the pension the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart’s family was to receive after his death be used for “the most needy” employees of the Rajya Sabha.

“Without, by any means, intending to undermine the noble sentiment associated with the offer of pension entitled to the spouse of a late MP, a cause which Arun himself championed, I would humble request the hon’ble parliament to deploy this pension amount towards the welfare of the most needy segment of the institution, which Arun served for almost two decades; the Class IV employees of the Rajya Sabha,” Sangeeta Jaitley wrote in the letter to Naidu. “I am sure, Arun, too, would have wished the same,” she added.

A copy of the letter has been marked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A political giant and strategist for the BJP, Jaitley, 66, died on August 24 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where he had been under critical care. Apart from heading the key Union ministries including finance, he was also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament, of which he was a four-term member.

Modi described him as a “valued friend” whose insights and nuanced understanding of matters had “very few parallels”.

In the letter, Sangeeta Jaitley wrote: “Arun has always been a silent philanthropist whose magnanimity was profound.” “Whatever success he was able to achieve in his legal profession or politics, he believed, was due to abiding support and good wishes of his mentors, colleagues. Friends, relatives and he always stood up to help and assist anyone in need.”