Sushma Swaraj | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Official portrait, 2017 | |
| 29thUnion Minister of External Affairs | |
| In office 26 May 2014 – 30 May 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Salman Khurshid |
| Succeeded by | S. Jaishankar |
| 4thUnion Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs | |
| In office 26 May 2014 – 7 January 2016 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Vayalar Ravi |
| Succeeded by | office abolished |
| 11thLeader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha | |
| In office 21 December 2009 – 19 May 2014 | |
| Deputy | Gopinath Munde |
| Speaker | Meira Kumar |
| Preceded by | L. K. Advani |
| Succeeded by | Rahul Gandhi (2024)[a][b] |
| 19thUnion Minister of Parliamentary Affairs | |
| In office 29 January 2003 – 22 May 2004 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Pramod Mahajan |
| Succeeded by | Ghulam Nabi Azad |
| 29thUnion Minister of Health and Family Welfare | |
| In office 29 January 2003 – 22 May 2004 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | C. P. Thakur |
| Succeeded by | Anbumani Ramadoss |
| 21stUnion Minister of Information and Broadcasting | |
| In office 30 September 2000 – 29 January 2003 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Arun Jaitley |
| Succeeded by | Ravi Shankar Prasad |
| In office 19 March 1998 – 11 October 1998 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | S. Jaipal Reddy |
| Succeeded by | Pramod Mahajan |
| In office 16 May 1996 – 1 June 1996 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | P. A. Sangma |
| Succeeded by | C. M. Ibrahim |
| Member of Parliament,Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 10 April 1990 – 9 April 1996 | |
| Constituency | Haryana |
| In office 3 April 2000 – 8 November 2000 | |
| Constituency | Uttar Pradesh |
| In office 9 November 2000 – 2 April 2006 | |
| Succeeded by | Satyavrat Chaturvedi |
| Constituency | Uttarakhand |
| In office 3 April 2006 – 30 May 2009 | |
| Constituency | Madhya Pradesh |
| 5thChief Minister of Delhi | |
| In office 13 October 1998 – 3 December 1998 | |
| Lieutenant Governor | Vijai Kapoor |
| Preceded by | Sahib Singh Verma |
| Succeeded by | Sheila Dikshit |
| Member of Parliament,Lok Sabha | |
| In office 31 May 2009 – 24 May 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Rampal Singh |
| Succeeded by | Ramakant Bhargava |
| Constituency | Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh |
| In office 7 May 1996 – 3 October 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Madan Lal Khurana |
| Succeeded by | Vijay Kumar Malhotra |
| Constituency | South Delhi, Delhi |
| Minister of Labour and Employment,Government of Haryana | |
| In office June 1977 – June 1979 | |
| Chief Minister | Devi Lal |
| Minister of Education,Government of Haryana | |
| In office July 1987 – December 1989 | |
| Chief Minister | Devi Lal |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Sushma Sharma (1952-02-14)14 February 1952[1][2] |
| Died | 6 August 2019(2019-08-06) (aged 67) |
| Cause of death | Cardiac arrest |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Other political affiliations | Janata Party[3] |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Bansuri Swaraj (daughter) |
| Residence | 8, Safdarjung Lane, New Delhi |
| Alma mater | Sanatan Dharma College (BA) Panjab University (LLB) |
| Profession |
|
| Awards | Padma Vibhushan (2020) |
Sushma Swaraj (néeSharma; 14 February 1952 – 6 August 2019;Hindi pronunciation:[suʃmaːsʋəɾaːd͡ʒ]) was an Indian lawyer, politician and diplomat who served as the 5thChief Minister of Delhi, and also theMinister of External Affairs of India in thefirst Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She was the second person to complete a 5-year term as theMinister of External Affairs, afterJawaharlal Nehru. A senior leader of theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Swaraj was the second woman to hold the office of Minister of External Affairs, afterIndira Gandhi. She was elected seven times as aMember of Parliament and three times as aMember of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of theIndian state ofHaryana. She also served asChief Minister of Delhi for a short duration in 1998 and became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.[4]
In the2014 Indian general election, Swaraj won theVidisha constituency inMadhya Pradesh for a second term, retaining her seat by a margin of over 400,000 votes.[5] 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 dailyWall Street Journal.[6][7] She decided not to contest the2019 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.[8][9]
According to the doctors atAIIMS New Delhi, Swaraj succumbed to acardiac arrest following a heart attack on the night of 6 August 2019. She was awarded thePadma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, posthumously in 2020 in the field of Public Affairs.[10][11]
Sushma Swaraj (née Sharma)[12] was born on 14 February 1952 atAmbala Cantonment, Punjab (now Haryana), into aBrahmin family, to Hardev Sharma and Shrimati Laxmi Devi.[13][14] Her father was a prominentRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member. Her parents hailed from theDharampura area ofLahore, Pakistan.[15] She was educated atSanatan Dharma College inAmbala Cantonment and earned a bachelor's degree with majors in Sanskrit and Political Science.[16] She studied law atPanjab University, Chandigarh.[17][16][18] A state-level competition held by the Language Department of Haryana saw her winning the best Hindi Speaker award for three consecutive years.[19] Sushma Swaraj was a strict vegetarian.[20]
In 1973, Swaraj started practice as an advocate in theSupreme Court of India.[17][16] She began her political career withAkhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in the 1970s. Her husband,Swaraj Kaushal, was closely associated with the socialist leaderGeorge Fernandes and Sushma Swaraj became a part of George Fernandes's legal defence team in 1975. She actively participated inJayaprakash Narayan'sTotal Revolution Movement. After theEmergency, she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Later, she became a national leader of the BJP.[21]
She was a member of theHaryana Legislative Assembly from 1977 to 1982, winning theAmbala Cantonment assembly seat at the age of 25; and then, again from 1987 to 1990.[22] In July 1977, she was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister in theJanata Party Government headed by then Chief MinisterDevi 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.[1] She became State President of theJanata Party (Haryana) in 1979, at the age of 27. She was Education Minister of Haryana state in theBharatiya Janata Party–Lok Dal coalition government from 1987 to 1990.[16]
In April 1990, she was elected as a member of theRajya Sabha and remained there until she was elected to the11th Lok Sabha fromSouth Delhi constituency in 1996. Swaraj was elected to the11th Lok Sabha from theSouth Delhi constituency in the April 1996 elections.
She served as Union Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting during the 13-day government of PMAtal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996.[23]
After a tenure in national level politics, she resigned from the Union Cabinet in October 1998 to take over as theChief Minister of Delhi.[24] She became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.[24] Swaraj resigned from the position in December the same year.[25]
She was re-elected to the12th 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.[23] Her most notable decision during this period was to declare film production as an industry, which made theIndian film industry eligible for bank finance. She also startedcommunity radio at universities and other institutions.[26]
In September 1999, Swaraj was nominated by the BJP to contest against theCongress party's national PresidentSonia Gandhi in the13th Lok Sabha election, from theBellary constituency inKarnataka, which had always been retained by Congress politicians sincethe first Indian general election in 1951–52. During her campaign in Bellary, she addressed public meetings inKannada. She secured 358,000 votes in just 12 days of her election campaign. However, she lost the election by a 7% margin.[27][28]
She returned to Parliament in April 2000 as a Rajya Sabha member fromUttar Pradesh. She was reallocated toUttrakhand when the new state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000.[29] She was inducted into the Union Cabinet as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, a position she held from September 2000 until January 2003.[23]
She wasMinister of Health, Family Welfare andParliamentary Affairs from January 2003 until May 2004, when theNational Democratic Alliance Government lost the general election.[23]
As Union Health Minister, she set up sixAll India Institute of Medical Sciences atBhopal (MP),Bhubaneshwar (Odisha),Jodhpur (Rajasthan),Patna (Bihar),Raipur (Chhattisgarh) andRishikesh (Uttrakhand).[citation needed]
Swaraj was re-elected to theRajya Sabha for a third term in April 2006 fromMadhya Pradesh state. She served as theDeputy leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha until April 2009.
She won the 2009 election for the15th Lok Sabha from the Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency inMadhya Pradesh by the highest margin of over 400,000 votes. Sushma Swaraj became Leader of Opposition in the15th Lok Sabha in place ofLal Krishna Advani on 21 December 2009, and retained this position until May 2014 when, in the2014 Indian general election, her party won a major victory.[30][31][32][33]
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Swaraj had served as the IndianMinister of External Affairs under Prime Minister Narendra Modi from May 2014 to May 2019. She was responsible for implementing theforeign policy of Narendra Modi. She was only the second woman to hold this position afterIndira Gandhi.[34][35]
As Minister of External Affairs of theNDA government, Swaraj issued anNOC against a specific query raised by the UK government about the Indo-UK bilateral relationship if the UK granted permission toLalit 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".[36] However, some people mentioned this incident as Swaraj helping Lalit Modi in the travel visa process.[37][38][39]
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 theEnforcement 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 theBhagavad Gita as the national book of India.[40]
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.[41]
In December 2015, theNorwegian 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.[42]
In 1977, she became the youngest ever Cabinet Minister in theGovernment of Haryana at 25 years of age.[43] 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.[citation needed]She was the second female chief minister afterTamil Nadu'sV. N. Janaki who did not the member of the legislature. She is the Indian Parliament's first and the only female MP honoured with theOutstanding 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.[19]
In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, then Indian Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the government of India to recognise the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora.
On 19 February 2019 Swaraj accepted the prestigiousGrand Cross of Order of Civil Merit, which was conferred by the Spanish government in recognition of India's support in evacuating its citizens fromNepal during theearthquake in 2015.[44]
| Year | Constituency | Party | Votes | % | Opponent | Opponent Party | Opponent Votes | % | Result | Margin | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | South Delhi | BJP | 2,94,570 | 54.69 | Kapil Sibal | INC | 1,80,564 | 33.52 | Won | 1,14,006 | 21.17 | ||
| 1998 | 3,31,756 | 58.24 | Ajay Maken | 2,15,043 | 37.75 | Won | 1,16,713 | 20.49 | |||||
| 1999 | Bellary | 3,58,550 | 44.70 | Sonia Gandhi | 4,14,650 | 51.70 | Lost | -56,100 | -7.00 | ||||
| 2009 | Vidisha | 4,38,235 | 78.80 | Ch. Munavver Salim | SP | 48,391 | 8.70 | Won | 3,89,844 | 70.10 | |||
| 2014 | 7,14,348 | 66.55 | Lakshman Singh | INC | 3,03,650 | 28.29 | Won | 4,10,698 | 38.26 | ||||
| Position | Party | Constituency | From | To | Tenure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (1st Term) | BJP | Haryana | 10 April 1990 | 9 April 1996 | 5 years, 365 days | |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (2nd Term) | Uttar Pradesh | 3 April 2000 | 8 November 2000 | 219 days | ||
| Uttarakhand | 9 November 2000 | 2 April 2006 | 5 years, 144 days | |||
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (3rd Term) | Madhya Pradesh | 3 April 2006 | 30 May 2009 | 3 years, 57 days | ||
During the times ofthe Emergency, on 13 July 1975, Sushma Sharma marriedSwaraj Kaushal, a peer and fellow advocate at theSupreme Court of India. The Emergency movement brought the couple together, who then teamed up for the defence of the socialist leaderGeorge Fernandes.[45][46] Swaraj Kaushal, a senior advocate ofSupreme Court of India and a criminal lawyer, also served asGovernor of Mizoram from 1990 to 1993. He was a member of parliament from 1998 to 2004.[47]
The couple has a daughter,Bansuri, who is a graduate fromOxford University and a Barrister at Law fromInner Temple.[48][49] Bansuri was elected to the Lok Sabha on2024 fromNew Delhi constituency.[50]
Sushma Swaraj's sister Vandana Sharma is an associate professor of political science in a government college for girls in Haryana.[51] Their brother Dr. Gulshan Sharma is anAyurveda doctor based in Ambala.[52]
On 10 December 2015 she underwent a kidney transplant atAIIMS, Delhi with the organ being harvested from a living unrelated donor. The surgery was reported to be successful.[53]
On 6 August 2019, Sushma Swaraj reportedly suffered a heart attack in the evening after which she was rushed toAIIMS New Delhi, where she later died of a cardiac arrest.[54][55][56] She was cremated the next day withfull state honours at the Lodhi crematorium in Delhi.[57]
| 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 - 2009 |
| Union Cabinet Minister, Health and Family Welfareand 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 Broadcastingand 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) |
India:
Padma Vibhushan (2020)[58]
Spain:
Order of Civil Merit,Grand Cross (19 February 2019)[44]
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