Sushma Swaraj was the most prominent woman leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She became India’s foreign minister in 2014 and held the post for five years. She was elected Member of Parliament seven times. The late Indian politician died on 6 August 2019 but left an indelible print as the former foreign minister. The former advocate and minister has helped so much with her “Twitter diplomacy” that when it was her turn in 2016 to occupy a bed in a hospital due to kidney problems, several tweeters offered her their organs for the transplant she needed. Read more about the former advocate of the Supreme Court of India: Sushma Swaraj. 

Sushma Swaraj: Amazing Facts About The Former Indian Politician Who Helped Egypt and Yemen 

Early life: 

Sushma Swaraj was born on 14 February 1952 and has the distinction of being the second woman foreign minister in India after Indira Gandhi. Sushma Swaraj was born in Ambala Cantonment, Haryana. Her father was a respected member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Her parents hailed from Dharmapura, Lahore, Pakistan. She received her BA in Political Science and Sanskrit and advocated from Punjab University. In 1977, at the age of 25, Sushma Swaraj became the youngest minister in the history of the Indian state of Haryana. 

A look at her career:

She started her professional life as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of India in 1973. In 1970, she started her political journey with Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad. Her husband Swaraj Kaushal was greatly influenced by social activist Jorge Fernandez. Sushma became a member of Swaraj George’s legal team. During the Emergency, she participated in Jayaprakash Narayan’s Total Revolutionary Movement and was very active. She then joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and became an important and national-level leader of the party.

Apart from this, Sushma Swaraj has also been the Chief Minister of Delhi from 13 October 1998 to 3 December 1998.

During the 2014 Indian general election, Swaraj won a second term in the Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency, Madhya Pradesh. She won by over 400,000 votes from her nearest rival. On 26 May 2014, she was appointed as the Foreign Minister of India. The Wall Street Journal of America gave Swaraj the title of the most popular politician in India.

Due to health problems, she decided not to participate in the Indian general elections, in 2019. She had kidney problems and was advised by doctors to stay away from politics. 

State politics: 

She was a member of Haryana Legislative Assembly from 1977 to 1982. At that time she was just 25 years old and represented Ambala Cantonment Assembly Constituency. From the same constituency, she was a member of the assembly from 1987 to 1990. In 1977, she became a cabinet member of the Janata Party in the government of Chief Minister Chaudhry Devi Lal. In 1979, at the age of 27, she became the President of Janata Party Haryana. She was the Minister of Education in the Government of Haryana from 1987 to 1990.

Chief Minister of Delhi:

In 1998,  Sushma Swaraj resigned from the Cabinet of India and became the Chief Minister of Delhi. In December of the same year, Swaraj also resigned from this post.

Personal attributes and temperament:

Sushma Swaraj had a great personality, she was not only the face of BJP but she was a distinct identity in the whole world. Sushma was a very serious woman as well as possessing a bold and powerful personality. In the House, it never felt like she was a representative of the BJP, rather it felt like she belonged to every political party. She entered politics at a time when very few women entered politics.

Love life:

She married her lawyer friend Swaraj Kaushal on 13 July 1975. 

Sushma and Swaraj Kaushal fell in love during their college days and later tied the knot even though their parents were not in favor of the marriage. 

Sushma Swaraj did not have to work as hard to make her place in education and politics as she did for her marriage because both of their families were not ready for marriage. It was not easy to marry the love of your life when daughters were kept behind the scenes and a girl was not even seen as a bridegroom, but Sushma Swaraj took the courage to marry Swaraj Kaushal. 

Both of them met in the law department of Punjab University, Chandigarh, and then gradually the series of these meetings increased and gradually their love started to grow. Both Sushma and Swaraj Kaushal studied together and fell in love during their studies. The two got married on 13 July 1975. While Sushma Swaraj held a high position in politics, her husband Swaraj Kaushal also became a prominent advocate of the Supreme Court. Swaraj Kaushal became the youngest Advocate General at the age of just 34 years. Swaraj Kaushal also became the Governor of Mizoram at the age of 37 and she held the post from 1990 to 1993. 

Her relationship with China:

On April 22, 2018, Indian Foreign Minister Swaraj was visiting China and attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Beijing. 

During her interview with reporters held together by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, they said that China and India will strengthen coordination and cooperation on the SCO platform and jointly promote the SCO Summit in Qingdao to achieve fruitful results.

While Wang Yi congratulated India on becoming an SCO member and welcomed Foreign Minister Swaraj was able to represent India at the SCO foreign ministers meeting for the first time. 

Foreign Minister Swaraj thanked China for supporting India’s participation in the SCO during the talks, saying she would fully support China’s efforts to host the SCO summit in Qingdao in 2018 in addition to agreeing that China and India will work together with other member countries to promote the SCO to play a more constructive role in promoting regional security, stability, development and prosperity, upholding the “Shanghai spirit”.

One of her secret legacies was her skills on Twitter:

From repatriating thousands of workers struck by hunger or caught up in conflict to playing cupid for couples separated by distance, over her last few years the former India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has done the unimaginable armed with her favorite tool: Twitter. 

Supporting those in need:

The former Indian minister should be remembered for working miracles on Twitter! For example, she went as far as saving battered workers or getting a morbidly obese Egyptian woman a free operation in India and even saving a nun in Yemen.

Her followers wanted to offer their kidneys:

The former Indian Foreign Minister has almost 8 million followers on Twitter because she truly helps citizens around the world with the social network – but in 2016 she was the one who needed a transplant and the tweeters offered her their kidneys to save her.

Her “innovative style of ‘Twitter diplomacy'” landed her on Foreign Policy’s Global Thinkers 2016 list, although the recognition dwarfs when compared to the kidneys that grateful Twitter users offered her after stating that she needed a transplant.

And even Twitter India, posted a compilation video this week to wish “Our Twitter Superstar” a speedy recovery.

She helped with the food crisis in Saudi Arabia:

In 2015, Imran Khokhar received several messages on his Facebook page alerting him to the situation of nearly 10,000 Indian workers plunged into a serious food crisis due to non-payments by the companies that had hired them in Saudi Arabia, according to what he explained to Efe.

The young man wondered “Where should I go?”. 

But someone suggested after receiving the worrying messages that he try his luck with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is very active on Twitter but the leader did not respond. 

Desperate, one night he decided to tweet the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who, honoring his long record of solving “cyber problems”, responded in the “morning” with a promise of immediate help. 

That same day, says Khokhar, the Indian government and various NGOs distributed food to workers in Saudi Arabia and shortly after the gradual repatriation of thousands of them began.

Saving a honeymoon:

On August 8, the young photographer Faizan Patel tweeted to Swaraj a photo of himself on a train in Italy, the seat next to him occupied only by a snapshot of his wife, who had not been able to accompany him after losing her passport at the last minute.

But Sushma Swaraj was not going to let her countrymen go without a honeymoon due to a mere bureaucratic procedure and, just four days later, Patel tweeted to the world a new photo in the European country, this time hugging her young man. wife.

A nun trapped in Yemen: 

One of the best-known examples of the heroine of Twitter is especially memorable for one night in March when the minister, Sushma Swaraj at 03:30 in the morning, helped to evacuate a nun trapped in the conflict in Yemen or another in which he saved a newlywed couple’s honeymoon.

Of course, with so many struggling foreigners in India and struggling Indians abroad, there is always someone who takes advantage of the situation.

She provided Foreign Ministry aid to a woman from Egypt:

The Egyptian Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, 36 years old and with an estimated weight of about 500 kilos, was one of the last lucky ones to receive Swaraj’s medical favors, thanks to whom she was able to be operated on in an Indian clinic.

Although surgeon Muffazal Lakdawala of Mumbai’s Center for Digestive and Obesity Surgical Operations (CODS) had offered to perform the surgery free of charge, the Indian embassy in Cairo denied the woman’s visa application. 

The obesity of the young woman, who has not left her home for 25 years, prevented her from appearing in person at the diplomatic legation as required, explained the surgeon Dr. Lakdawala, who in desperation decided last week to knock on the door of SushmaSwaraj.

“And to my surprise she responded, (Swaraj) is hospitalized and still responded,” said the doctor, incredulous at the barely “12 hours” it took his Egyptian patient to receive a call from the Indian embassy confirming her visa.

Death: 

Sushma Swaraj was shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after suffering a cardiac arrest on 6 August 2019 where she could not survive and died at the age of 67. 

After a kidney transplant in 2016, her health remained unwell, due to which she decided not to participate in the Indian Lok Sabha elections in 2019. 

She was cremated with full state honors the next day on August 7. 

Tributes to Sushma Swaraj were even being done in Pakistan: 

The last rites of India’s former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj were being performed after she died of a heart attack in New Delhi. 

Tributes were being paid to India’s former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj from all over the world apart from India and its neighboring country Pakistan. Her age was only 67 years.

Even the leaders of the opposition Congress party in India also expressed their condolences on the death of Sushma Swaraj.

Most shocking was in Pakistan where her role in giving access to Indian hospitals for transplant and treatment was being praised by some circles on social media! 

Indian Prime Minister Modi paid homage to her:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed Sushma Swaraj’s death by saying: “A glorious chapter of Indian politics has come to an end.” India is saddened by the death of this extraordinary leader, who dedicated her whole being to improving the lives of the poor and serving the masses. Sushma Swaraj was a one-of-a-kind woman who was a source of inspiration for millions of people” 

“Sushmaji was an eminent spokesperson and a parliamentarian of exceptional ability. She was an admirable and respected figure in the party. She never compromised on the ideals and interests of the Bharatiya Janata Party, to which she has given immense support”. 

“Sushmaji has proved to be an excellent administrator in every ministry she has served. She played a key role in improving India’s relations and affairs with various countries. As a minister, we have found her role to be compassionate towards suffering Indians in any part of the world. Sushmaji’s tireless work as External Affairs Minister during the last five years cannot be forgotten. Even when she was not in good health,s he did as fair as possible with the work related to her ministry. Sushmaji’s demise is a personal loss because she will be remembered for everything she has done for India. I am with her family and her fans in this hour of sorrow. Om Shanti”. 

Last year, Anurag Thakur paid tribute as well:

The former Union Minister and BJP leader Sushma Swaraj was remembered on her death anniversary.

Back in August 2022, India’s one and only Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur paid tribute to former Union Minister and BJP leader Sushma Swaraj through Twitter. 

In a tweet, Mr. Thakur said that Sushma Swaraj has left a mark on the Indian political landscape as an active speaker, leader, and activist.