Sushma Swaraj
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A brief biography
August 7, 2019: The Times of India
A powerful orator, an easily-accessible external affairs minister and a politician of many firsts, Sushma Swaraj was a loyal BJP soldier who was always ready to face a challenge.
She was not part of the Modi government this time and S Jaishankar replaced her as the external affairs minister. She left behind a legacy of an easily-accessible minister who helped the diaspora in distress with her revolutionary social media outreach.
Several path-breaking measures such as the passport infrastructure expansion and enhanced engagement with the East were the highlights of her tenure as the external affairs minister.
She was only the second woman to hold the portfolio after Indira Gandhi, who briefly kept the external affairs ministry under her while being the prime minister.
Swaraj had many firsts to her credit such as being the youngest cabinet minister in the Haryana government, first woman chief minister of Delhi and the first woman spokesperson for a national political party in the country.
She started her political life with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the R S S' student wing, and later joined the BJP.
She was the Information and Broadcasting Minister in the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1996 and got the Cabinet portfolio again after he led the BJP to power in 1998.
Always eager to take on a challenge, Swaraj contested against the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Bellary in 1999 Lok Sabha polls. Though she fell short of votes, she grew in stature. Long seen as a protege of veteran BJP leader L K Advani, she also was the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha between 2009-14.
Swaraj, a law graduate who practised in the Supreme Court, was elected seven times as a member of Parliament and three times as a member of the legislative assembly.
Swaraj has also held the portfolios of telecommunications, health and family welfare, and parliamentary affairs in the Union Cabinet.
She was married to Swaraj Kaushal, a designated senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India who served as governor of Mizoram from 1990 to 1993. Kaushal was also a Member of Parliament from 1998 to 2004.
Swaraj was also the recipient of the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award.
During her tenure as the external affairs minister, she handled several strategically-sensitive issues, including Indo-Pak and Sino-India relations.
Her role in resolving the prickly Doklam standoff between the Indian and Chinese sides will be remembered.
Though known to be a tough fighter in the political battlefield, Swaraj was admired and respected across party lines.
Popularity with Indians abroad
August 7, 2019: The Times of India
Former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj’s sudden demise is certainly a big loss for Indian politics. She belonged to a generation of leaders for whom politics and personal relations were separate, earning her respect from fellow politicians across party lines. A powerful orator in Parliament, she came to be the woman face of BJP. Steely yet harbouring an affable disposition, she was BJP’s first woman CM, Union Cabinet minister and leader of opposition.
But it was in her role as the foreign minister that she made the most impact in the last few years. For many Indians abroad, she was seen as a guardian angel who made the foreign ministry accessible and ready to help in tricky situations. Her responsiveness on Twitter to Indians in dire circumstances won her plaudits across the board. All of this while she battled personal health complications.
As a new breed of politicians emerges in India today, they would do well to learn from Swaraj’s grace, compassion and commitment to service. She wore power lightly and reached out to the common man. These are qualities truly worthy of emulation.
1977-2019: a life in politics
From: August 7, 2019: The Times of India
See graphic:
Sushma Swaraj: Political journey, 1977-May 2019
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August 8, 2019: The Times of India
How A Saffron Star Rose From Socialist Roots
The Seventies
Sushma Swaraj’s political career began at the age of 25 in 1977 when she was elected to the Haryana assembly from Ambala Cantonment on a Janata Party ticket
Set record as the youngest cabinet minister in the state after being inducted into chief minister Devi Lal’s team
Became Haryana president of Janata Party in 1979. Sushma had in the period of the Emergency (1975-77) participated in protests against the Indira Gandhi govt led by Jayprakash Narayan. A lawyer, she was also part of the legal team that defended socialist leader George Fernandes when he was imprisoned during Emergency
The Eighties
Sushma remained active in state and national politics and was re-elected to the Haryana assembly in 1987, this time as a BJP member
The Nineties
Her nearly 30-year career as a parliamentarian began with a nomination to the Rajya Sabha. Sushma made her Lok Sabha debut from the high-profile South Delhi constituency in 1996. She was I&B minister in AB Vajpayee’s 13-day government in 1996. Till 2019, she had seven terms as an MP
In October 1998, Sushma was sworn in as chief minister of Delhi in October, the first woman in the post. She battled through an onion price crisis, which had jumped 600%, and was forced to resign that December. Sheila Dikshit of Congress became CM in the election that followed
One of the highlights of her electoral career was the battle of Bellary in 1999 in which she took on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. During the high-voltage campaign, Sushma addressed meetings in Kannada and vowed to shave off her head if she lost. She did lose, by 56,000 votes, but won many hearts and grew substantially in stature
The Noughties
Sushma made her way back to Parliament in 2000, again as a member of Rajya Sabha, and became a minister in the NDA govt. In 2009, when UPA-2 came to power, Sushma was appointed Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. She had won the election from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh
In 2014, after BJP stormed to power under Narendra Modi, Sushma was sworn in as external affairs minister, only the second woman to hold the post after Indira Gandhi. She won high praise for being accessible to people, responding to tweets and making swift interventions for those who appealed to her for help
The leader who took diplomacy to the people
August , 2019: The Times of India
She brought the exalted foreign ministry down to the aam aadmi
For Many In Distress, Sushma Was Ray Of Hope
When Sushma Swaraj was named foreign minister by the first Narendra Modi government, there were political ripples within the BJP ecosystem. She did not enjoy the close relationship with Modi that some others did, but was a top-level BJP leader in her own right.
Over the next few months, Sushma reinvented herself. With Modi himself taking a huge interest in foreign affairs, she soon carved out a unique space for herself in the foreign ministry that made the most of her political and people skills.
She took to social media as if she was born to it. She brought the exalted foreign minister down to the average Indian, particularly one in distress or in need, stranded in a foreign land. She responded directly to calls for help on Twitter whether it was a worker in a Gulf state, duped by unscrupulous agents, or out of money; a honeymoon couple stranded without visas, or a family struggling to bring back the body of a loved one from a foreign land.
In the process, she gave the otherwise snooty foreign ministry a homey, embracing feel. All of Twitter shared a laugh with her when she responded to one desperate citizen whose refrigerator needed fixing: “Brother I cannot help you in matters of a Refrigerator. I am very busy with human beings in distress.”
She worked closely with Harish Salve to get the Kulbhushan Jadhav case going in the ICJ. Salve may have been fighting the case at The Hague, but Sushma was providing emotional support to his family. In fact, after the verdict, Jadhav’s family called on Sushma, who was no longer the foreign minister, but a family mentor. Salve said he was supposed to collect his fees of Re 1 that he charged for the Jadhav case from her tomorrow.
During one of those difficult periods between India and Pakistan when all conversation had stopped, Sushma kept her own back channel working, tweeting out clearances for medical visas for Pakistani citizens in need. For the families of 39 Indian workers who disappeared in Iraq, Sushma was their only ray of hope, who sat with them and assured them that she was trying everything to determine whether they were still alive.
In later years, Sushma and Modi built a much closer relationship than they had started out with. It was to her that he entrusted the delicate relationship with Nepal that had got frayed after India’s blockade.
Moreover, she also took the passport simplification system started by her predecessor and broadened it, so that now you can go to a Post Office and find a Passport Seva Kendra.
As External Affairs Minister
August 8, 2019: The Times of India
In 2016, Washington Post had described her as “Supermom of State.” Sushma Swaraj’s online presence was marked by receptiveness to ordinary people, boundless compassion and ready wit. As India’s foreign minister, she always engaged positively with thousands of distressed citizens who reached out to her, online and offline, seeking her intervention on subjects as diverse as evacuation emergencies, loss of passport, even fridge repairs
