Police personnel lay the National Flag over the mortal remains of former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, at BJP HQ in New Delhi, Wednesday. (PTI )Her hands clutching a basket of rose petals and a garland, 85-year-old Fatima waited for hours in the queue outside a hall at the BJP headquarters, where Sushma Swaraj’s body lay Wednesday afternoon. “Is Sushma didi here?” she asked every few minutes. It was a long morning for Fatima. She was woken up early to news of Swaraj’s death by a family member. She rushed to a flower shop closest to Jeevan Deep Kustha Ashram, a leprosy colony in Delhi’s RK Puram, where she has lived for decades and bought a few hundred rupees worth of flowers.
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“Every year on her birthday on February 14, Sushma didi would begin celebrations with us at the colony. This had been going on for 18 years. She loved us deeply, fed us aloo-puri that day, and asked us how we were. This is a personal loss,” said Fatima, who was accompanied by five others from her colony, and six from the Lajpat Nagar leprosy colony.
From Prime Minister Narendra Modi his predecessor Manmohan Singh, politicians across party lines gathered at Swaraj’s Jantar Mantar home in the morning. Around 1 pm, her body was moved to the BJP headquarters where Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani were present among others. The cremation was held at Lodhi crematorium around 3.45 pm.
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Daughter Bansuri, husband Swaraj Kaushal, Union ministers and BJP leaders bid farewell to Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi on Wednesday. (ANI)Like Fatima, hundreds, whose lives Swaraj touched, showed up at the BJP office — with bouquets of lilies and roses, old photographs of Swaraj, and a heavy heart.
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And from a local BJP leader from Kalimpong in Darjeeling to a former East Delhi Mayor, women clearly outnumbered the men at the BJP office.
“For decades, I saw Sushma ji on TV, standing tall with the men at rallies, on stage and for elections. She was an inspiration, she taught a whole generation of women that we too could dabble in politics and be successful. I tried getting an appointment with her in Delhi but couldn’t. I had no idea this is how I would first meet her,” said Annapurna Chaturvedi, president, BJP Kalimpong, as she held on to two roses she got for Swaraj.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays his last respects to former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj at her residence in New Delhi (PTI )In another corner, a group of women — former East Delhi Mayor Neema Bhagat; Shahdara District President of BJP Mahila Morcha Chhavi Kala Singh; and party member Usha Luthra — exchanged tales of their encounters with Swaraj.
Bhagat said, “Didi was very popular with the masses and she shared that secret with me. She suggested that as a mayor, I should attend weddings of family members of the party workers. They feel supported and it adds to their image.” Singh and Luthra said that Swaraj taught them how to balance work and family life, and that “women being ambitious was no crime.”
The mortal remains of former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj being taken to Lodhi crematorium for her last rites (Express Photo By Amit Mehra)Hindi poet Ashok Chakradhar recalled a chance encounter with Swaraj in a flight over 30 years ago. He said, “Sushma ji recited a verse from a poem I had written for a play titled Bandriya Chali Sasural, which was presented at National School of Drama. I was surprised that she remembered it, though I didn’t. She then told me that her daughter Bansuri played Hallam Haathi in the play. She loved poetry.”
At the Lodhi crematorium, poet-lyricist and Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Prasoon Joshi recounted numerous casual meetings at her home over the years. “There is so much of my work that only Sushma ji was privy too. Whenever I met her, she would ask me about my work-in-progress project, the next poem or the song. I have recited countless poems that I never released to her. I will miss those meetings,” he said.
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From Narnaul in Haryana came Prithviraj Yadav (60), who said, “She was Haryana’s beti and even as she achieved heights, especially becoming the Minister of External Affairs, she didn’t forget her homeland, her Haryana.”
