Former Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj cremated with state honours

New Delhi: Former Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was cremated at the Lodhi crematorium in New Delhi on Wednesday with full state honours. She died on Tuesday night at AIIMS after suffering a cardiac attack at the age of 67.

A host of leaders and dignitaries paid tribute to Sushma Swaraj, who was a powerful orator and a Union minister in the previous Narendra Modi-led BJP govt from 2014-2019. She was the most accessible external affairs minister, which changed the face of the ministry during her tenure.

Daughter of a prominent RSS functionary in Haryana, Swaraj was the BJP's troubleshooter of all seasons.

Swaraj had had a kidney transplant in 2016. She continued to be the external affairs minister but her public outings got severely limited to prevent any infection. She opted out of the Lok Sabha election in 2019 and also the government early this year citing health reasons.

After Indira Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj was the only second woman to be the external affairs minister and the first to be sole in charge of the ministry.

During her over 40-year-long electoral-political career, Sushma Swaraj had many firsts to her credit.

She was the youngest cabinet minister in the Haryana government in 1977, the first woman chief minister of Delhi in 1998 and also became the first woman to be a national spokesperson of a national party .