Jaitley's death an irreparable loss: Mahajan

Indore: Former Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday termed as "irreparable loss for the government and the BJP" the death of former union finance minister Arun Jaitley. Jaitley, 66, breathed his last at 12:07 pm at the AIIMS in Delhi after battling multiple health issues for the last several months.

He was on life support. Recalling Jaitley's penchant for wearing beautiful shawls, Mahajan said she had once jokingly told him that she would "steal" one of them. "Jaitley was the pillar of the BJP and the Central government.

His death has caused irreparable damage to both," the former BJP MP told reporters here. Recalling Jaitley's conduct in Parliament, Mahajan said he never attacked the Opposition unnecessarily. "As a Union minister he gave such satisfactory and pointed replies on the behalf of the government to the Opposition that it would leave no room to anyone to raise supplementary questions," said Mahajan who was speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha from 2014 to 2019.

Mahajan reminisced Jaitley as an intelligent and charming personality. "I used to call him the blue-eyed boy of the BJP. He wore beautiful shawls. I used to joke with him that I am going to steal his shawl one day," she recalled.