Video editor: Sandeep Suman
Video producer: Anubhav Mishra
Sushma Swaraj did not contest the 2019 general elections but her legacy may well be captured by her last political activity. Around four hours before her death, she tweeted congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his government’s recent decisions on Jammu & Kashmir – which abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two UTs.
As prophetic as it may seem now, her last tweet said, “I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime.”
The fact that a tweet reverberates after her passing away is all the more uncanny, given the way she used the social media platform to make the Ministry of External Affairs accessible to the common man, during her tenure.
Sushma Swaraj Early Life
Sushma Swaraj was born on 14 February 1952 in Haryana’s Ambala to Hardev Sharma and Laxmi Devi. After earning her Bachelors’ degree with majors in Sanskrit and Political Science, she studied law.
Her oration skills were appreciated right since her college days and no wonder she went on to become one of the most prominent orators during her stint in Parliament.
Into the Political Arena
Swaraj’s first brush with politics was as an ABVP leader during her college days. The student politics-hardened leader soon entered the Haryana Assembly in 1977, at the age of 25, winning from the Ambala Cantonment constituency.
She later became the Education Minister of Haryana in the Bharatiya Janata Party-Lok Dal coalition government from 1987 to 1990.
And Then Onto the Bigger Stage
In April 1990, Swaraj was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha and remained there until she was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha from the South Delhi constituency in 1996, following which she was made the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting during the 13-day government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
After a tenure in national-level politics, in October 1998, she resigned from the Union Cabinet to take over as the first female chief minister of Delhi, a post she could not hold for long.
However, her success in the general elections continued unabated, as she also served as the Union Health Minister under Vajpayee’s government between 2003 and 2004. Following NDA’s defeat in the 2004 general election, she was elected to the Rajya Sabha for her third term in April 2006 and then served as the deputy leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha till April 2009.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, she won from the Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh by the highest margin of over 4 lakh votes.
The Accessible Foreign Minister
Under PM Modi’s government, Swaraj was handed the important External Affairs Ministry, which she headed till 2019, when she decided to not contest the Lok Sabha elections, citing her ill-health.
Among the most tech-savvy politicians of her time, Swaraj insightfully tapped into the potential of Twitter as an official communication tool, often conducting her business on the social media platform. She reached out to several people in need via the platform, earning herself the title of ‘India’s best-loved politician.’
‘The Love Story of Opposing Ideologies’
Sushma Swaraj got married to a fellow lawyer Swaraj Kaushal on 13 July 1975 during the time of emergency. It was a love story that the whole India was talking about. A love story that started in college and ended with the former quitting active politics, to be able to spend more time with her husband.
Sushma met with Swaraj Kaushal during their college days while studying law in Delhi. The two were believers of opposing ideologies, wish Sushma having her roots in the RSS and Kaushal having a socialist belief.
The two had worked together as part of a team of lawyers who contested the case of George Fernandes during the Emergency, India Today reports.
Her daughter, Bansuri Swaraj also went on to become a lawyer.
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