India bids farewell to people's neta Sushma Swaraj

New Delhi: The nation on Wednesday bid its final farewell to senior BJP leader and former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, 67, who passed away late on Tuesday night after a cardiac arrest at AIIMS. A powerful orator, a lady of “extraordinary gifts”, a “role model for women leaders” and a “compassionate” person, who is given credit for making the external affairs ministry a “people’s ministry”, Ms Swaraj’s personal rapport with leaders cutting across party lines was so strong that many had to fight back tears as they paid their last respects to her. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, her mentor and party veteran L.K. Advani, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav were just a few of many leaders who were seen getting overwhelmed while paying their last respects to her. President Ram Nath Kovind visited her residence to pay his respects as well.

The Prime Minister visited both her residence and the BJP headquarters, where her mortal remains were kept for a while, before being taken to the Lodhi Road crematorium. She was accorded full state honours, after which her body was sent to the electric crematorium. Her daughter Bansuri performed her last rites. Union home minister and BJP president Amit Shah, who also went to Ms Swaraj’s residence and oversaw preparations at the party headquarters and the crematorium, said her death had created a great void that would be hard to fill. Mr Shah said as external affairs minister, Ms Swaraj had “enhanced the country’s reputation across the world and her death had left a void which would be hard to fill”.

Ms Swaraj, the first woman chief minister of Delhi and also the first woman Cabinet minister of the BJP, was known as the “minister with the people’s touch” during her stint as external affairs minister, when she rescued many Indians across the globe after they reached out to her via Twitter, to which she used to promptly respond.

Ironically, her last tweet a couple of hours before she had the cardiac arrest was on the Modi government’s decision on Article 370. “Thank you, Prime Minister. Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime,” read her last tweet.

Describing her as a “superb orator, great parliamentarian and a lady of extraordinary gifts”, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who visited her residence, said that in their many years together as Lok Sabha colleagues, “we developed a warm personal relationship and I feel her loss greatly”. Ms Swaraj had unsuccessfully contested against Mrs Gandhi in Ballari during the 1999 electoral battle when the latter had made her electoral debut.

Trying to fight back tears, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav recalled how she used to respond to the requests made by Opposition leaders, and described her as “bade dilwali”.

Overwhelmed with emotions, BJP veteran L.K. Advani, who is seen as her mentor, recalled that not even a single year had she missed bringing his favourite chocolate cake on his birthday. Recalling how she was a promising young activist who he had inducted into his team, Mr Advani said: “And over the years, she became one of the most popular and prominent leaders of our party — in fact, a role model for women leaders. A brilliant orator, I was often amazed at her ability to recall incidents, events and present them with utmost clarity and eloquence.”

At the BJP headquarters, hundreds of people paid their last respects to the late leader, many recalling how Ms Swaraj had helped them and had remained in touch with them despite such a busy schedule as a leader and as a Union minister. From the BJP headquarters, her mortal remains were taken to the Lodhi Road crematorium, where her daughter Bansuri performed the last rites.

Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal, Ravi Shankar Prasad and BJP working president J.P. Nadda served as pallbearers to Ms Swaraj on her last journey, as her mortal remains were taken to the crematorium from the party headquarters. Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers, senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Haryana CM M.L. Khattar, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Bhutan’s former Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay along with other leaders and dignitaries were also present at the crematorium.