Sushma Swaraj

Sushma Swaraj (née Sharma; 14 February 1952 – 6 August 2019) was an Indian lawyer, politician and diplomat who served as the 5th Chief Minister of Delhi, and also the Minister of External Affairs of India in the First Modi ministry from 2014 to 2019. She was the second person to complete a 5-year term as the Minister of External Affairs, after Jawaharlal Nehru. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Swaraj was the second woman to hold the office of Minister of External Affairs, after Indira Gandhi. She was elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of the Indian state of Haryana. She also served as Chief Minister of Delhi for a short duration in 1998 and became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.

In the 2014 Indian general election, Swaraj won the Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh for a second term, retaining her seat by a margin of over 400,000 votes. She became the Minister of External Affairs in the union cabinet on 26 May 2014. Swaraj was called India's "best-loved politician" by the US daily Wall Street Journal. She decided not to contest the 2019 Indian general election as she was recovering from a kidney transplant and needed to "save herself from dust and stay safe from infection" and hence did not join the second Modi Ministry in 2019.

Swaraj died after cardiac arrest following a heart attack on the night of 6 August 2019. She was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, posthumously in 2020 in the field of Public Affairs.

Early life and education Sushma Swaraj (née Sharma) was born on 14 February 1952 at Ambala Cantonment, Punjab (now Haryana), into a Brahmin family, to Hardev Sharma and Shrimati Laxmi Devi. Her father was a prominent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member. Her parents hailed from the Dharampura area of Lahore, Pakistan. She was educated at Sanatan Dharma College in Ambala Cantonment and earned a bachelor's degree with majors in Sanskrit and Political Science. A state-level competition held by the Language Department of Haryana saw her winning the best Hindi Speaker award for three consecutive years. Sushma Swaraj was a strict vegetarian.

Advocacy career In 1973, Swaraj started practice as an advocate in the Supreme Court of India.

Political career

Early political career She was a member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly from 1977 to 1982, winning the Ambala Cantonment assembly seat at the age of 25; and then, again from 1987 to 1990. In July 1977, she was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister in the Janata Party Government headed by then Chief Minister Devi Lal. She held the Labour and Employment ministries from 1977 to 1979. Later she became Minister of Education, Food and Civil supplies during 1987 to 1990.

Chief Minister of Delhi (1998)

After a tenure in national level politics, she resigned from the Union Cabinet in October 1998 to take over as the Chief Minister of Delhi. She became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.

Minister of Information and Broadcasting (2000–2003) She was re-elected to the 12th Lok Sabha from South Delhi Parliamentary constituency for a second term, in March 1998. Under the second PM Vajpayee Government, she was sworn in as Union Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting with an additional charge of the Ministry of Telecommunications from 19 March 1998 to 12 October 1998.

In September 1999, Swaraj was nominated by the BJP to contest against the Congress party's national President Sonia Gandhi in the 13th Lok Sabha election, from the Bellary constituency in Karnataka, which had always been retained by Congress politicians since the first Indian general election in 1951–52. During her campaign in Bellary, she addressed public meetings in Kannada. She secured votes in just 12 days of her election campaign. However, she lost the election by a 7% margin.

She returned to Parliament in April 2000 as a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. She was reallocated to Uttrakhand when the new state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000. She was inducted into the Union Cabinet as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, a position she held from September 2000 until January 2003.

Minister of Health & Family Welfare (2003–2004) The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Smt. Sushma Swaraj addressing the Press on "Birds flu" in New Delhi on 29 January 2004 She was Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs from January 2003 until May 2004, when the National Democratic Alliance Government lost the general election.

Minister of External Affairs (2014–2019)

Swaraj had served as the Indian Minister of External Affairs under Prime Minister Narendra Modi from May 2014 to May 2019. She was responsible for implementing the foreign policy of Narendra Modi. She was only the second woman to hold this position after Indira Gandhi.

As Minister of External Affairs of the NDA government, Swaraj issued an NOC against a specific query raised by the UK government about the Indo-UK bilateral relationship if the UK granted permission to Lalit Modi, an Indian fugitive in a cricket scandal who had been staying in Britain since 2010, to attend his wife's surgery in Portugal. She conveyed to the British High Commissioner that they should examine Modi's request as per their rules and wrote "if the British government chooses to give travel documents to Lalit Modi -– that will not spoil our bilateral relations". However, some people mentioned this incident as Swaraj helping Lalit Modi in the travel visa process.

On 12 August 2015, the leader of the Indian National Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge, moved an Adjournment Motion in the lower house seeking the resignation of Sushma Swaraj due to her alleged conduct in this regard. Initially, the motion was rejected by the Speaker, but it was accepted on Swaraj's insistence. Intervening in the motion, Swaraj clarified that Lalit Modi's right of residency was not cancelled, since the Enforcement Directorate did not file an extradition request. The Adjournment Motion was subsequently rejected with a voice vote. Sushma Swaraj was heavily criticised in 2014 when she urged Prime Minister Modi to declare the Bhagavad Gita as the national book of India.

As External Affairs Minister, she played a pivotal role in bringing back the then 23-year-old hearing and speech-impaired Indian girl named Gita who was stranded in Pakistan for 15 years.

In December 2015, the Norwegian government took custody of an Indian origin child from his parents citing child abuse. Swaraj, then the External Affairs Minister, stepped in after the mother of the child formally requested help from Indian government.

Distinctions and records In 1977, she became the youngest ever Cabinet Minister in the Government of Haryana at 25 years of age. In 1979, she became State President of Janata Party, Haryana State at the young age of 27. Sushma Swaraj was the first female Spokesperson of a national political party in India. She has many firsts to her credit as BJP's first female Chief Minister, Union Cabinet Minister, general secretary, Spokesperson, Leader of Opposition and Minister of External Affairs.She was the second female chief minister after Tamil Nadu's V. N. Janaki who did not the member of the legislature. She is the Indian Parliament's first and the only female MP honoured with the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award. She has contested 11 direct elections from four states. She has served as the President of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in Haryana for four years. Swaraj Kaushal, a senior advocate of Supreme Court of India and a criminal lawyer, also served as Governor of Mizoram from 1990 to 1993. He was a member of parliament from 1998 to 2004.

The couple has a daughter, Bansuri, who is a graduate from Oxford University and a Barrister at Law from Inner Temple. Bansuri was elected to the Lok Sabha on 2024 from New Delhi constituency.

Sushma Swaraj's sister Vandana Sharma is an associate professor of political science in a government college for girls in Haryana. Their brother Dr. Gulshan Sharma is an Ayurveda doctor based in Ambala.

On 10 December 2015 she underwent a kidney transplant at AIIMS, Delhi with the organ being harvested from a living unrelated donor. The surgery was reported to be successful.

Death On 6 August 2019, Sushma Swaraj reportedly suffered a heart attack in the evening after which she was rushed to AIIMS New Delhi, where she later died of a cardiac arrest. She was cremated the next day with full state honours at the Lodhi crematorium in Delhi.

Positions held + Positions Held Position Duration Minister of External Affairs 16 Feb. 2016 - 29 May 2019 Minister of External Affairs & Overseas Indian Affairs 27 May 2014 - 16 Feb. 2016 Member, 16th Lok Sabha Re-elected in May 2014 (4th term) Leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha Leader, BJP Parliamentary Party, Lok Sabha 21 Dec. 2009 Member, General Purpose Committee 19 Oct. 2009 Member, Committee on Ethics 7 Oct. 2009 Member, Rules Committee 23 Sep. 2009 Chairperson, Standing Committee on External Affairs 31 Aug. 2009 - 1 Jan. 2010 Member, 15th Lok Sabha Re-elected in 2009 (3rd term) Member, House Committee, Rajya Sabha May 2008 - 2009 Member, Parliamentary Forum on Population and Public Health May 2006 - 2009 Member, Rajya Sabha Re-elected in Apr. 2006 (3rd term) Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Defence Oct. 2004 - 2009 Member, Ethics Committee, Rajya Sabha Sep. 2004 - 2009 Member, General Purposes Committee, Rajya Sabha Member, Business Advisory Committee, Rajya Sabha Chairperson, Standing Committee on Home Affairs Aug. 2004 - 2009Union Cabinet Minister, Health and Family Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs 29 Jan. 2003 - 22 May 2004 Union Cabinet Minister, Information and Broadcasting 30 Sep. 2000 - 29 Jan. 2003 Member, Rajya Sabha Re-elected in Apr. 2000 (2nd term) Chief Minister, N.C.T. of Delhi 13 Oct. - 3 Dec. 1998 Union Cabinet Minister, Information and Broadcasting and Telecommunications (Additional Charge) 19 Mar. - 12 Oct. 1998 Member, 12th Lok Sabha Re-elected in 1998 (2nd term) Member, Committee of Privileges Chairperson, Sub-Committee on Upgradation and Modernisation of Naval Fleet Member, Standing Committee on Defence 1996–98 Union Cabinet Minister, Information and Broadcasting 16 May - 1 Jun. 1996 Member, 11th Lok Sabha Elected in 1996 Chairperson, Committee on Petitions, Rajya Sabha 1994–96 Member, Committee on Government Assurances, Rajya Sabha Chairperson, Joint Committee on Catering 1992–94 Member, Rajya Sabha Elected in 1990 Cabinet Minister, Education, Food and Civil Supplies, Govt. of Haryana 1987–90 Cabinet Minister, Labour and Employment, Govt. of Haryana 1977–79 Member, Haryana Legislative Assembly 1977-82 and 1987-90 (two terms)

Awards and honours National honours

Foreign honours

Posthumous honours In 2020, Government of India renamed Foreign Service Institute of India after her as Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service. In 2020, Government of India renamed Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra after her as Sushma Swaraj Bhawan. The bus station of Ambala City is named after her in 2020.