A Distinguished Political Personality
Sushma Swaraj was a veteran politician from India. A leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), during her more than four-decade long political career Sushma Swaraj was elected seven times to the Lok Sabha as MP and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. Sushma Swaraj served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the Union Cabinet during 2014-2019, being the second women to hold this prestigious office after Indira Gandhi.
Born on 14th February 1952, she was an eminent politician and a Supreme Court lawyer. Sushma Swaraj was a former Supreme Court lawyer; she began practicing as an advocate in the Supreme Court of India in 1973.
While discussing about Sushma Swaraj we can easily come to know that she achieved the distinction of becoming the youngest Cabinet Minister of the state of Haryana(a state of India) at 25.
Sushma Swaraj was also the first female Chief Minister of Delhi though she stayed for less than two months in that position before tendering her resignation from Chief Ministership of Delhi on 3rd December 1998.
Any good biography of Sushma Swaraj needs to highlight that during her long and distinguished political career, she was in charge of important ministries in the Union Government.
She served as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting during 30th September 2000-29th January 2003; she was Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs during 29th January 2003-22nd May 2004. During her tenure as the Union Health Minister, six All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Bhopal (MP), Bhubaneshwar (Odisha), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), and Rishikesh (Uttrakhand) were set up.
She served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha during 2009-2014. She was awarded Padma Vibhushan posthumously, in 2020, which is India’s second highest civilian award.
She died on 6th August 2019 of cardiac arrest at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. The age of Sushma Swaraj at the time of her demise was 67 years.
FAQs
She began her political career in early 1970s with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a right-wing national level student organization affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
She and Swaraj Kaushal married in 1975, during the time of Emergency in India. Swaraj Kaushal is a criminal lawyer, practicing in New Delhi.
She did earn a bachelor’s degree with majors in Sanskrit and Political Science from Sanatan Dharma College in Ambala Cantonment, in Haryana, which she followed with a law degree from the Panjab University, Chandigarh.
