Sushma Swaraj cremated with state honours. PM Modi, other leaders in attendance

Former external affairs minister Sushma Swarajwas cremated at Delhi’s Lodhi Road electric crematorium on Wednesday with full state honours.

The last rites of the 67-year-old BJP stalwart were performed by her daughter Bansuri Swaraj, as her husband Swaraj Kaushal stood beside her.

Hundreds of people, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and veteran party leader L K Advani, vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu and defence minister Rajnath Singh were at crematorium to bid her farewell.

Also read: Tears flow as nation pays tributes to people’s leader Sushma Swaraj

The BJP’s working president JP Nadda, Nitin Gadkari, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Congress leader Anand Sharma were among others who attended the cremation.

Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay was also present. The body of the long-time BJP leader, who died here on Tuesday at the age of 67, was brought to the crematorium from the party office.

Draped in the tricolour, her body was kept at the BJP headquarters for public homage before it was brought to the crematorium.

Sushma Swaraj died Tuesday night at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after a cardiac arrest.

Also read: ‘Hindustan ki beti’, who returned from Pakistan, remembers ‘mother’ Sushma Swaraj

Swaraj who was the foreign minister in the first term of the Modi government in 2014, added a human touch to diplomacy. She opted out of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections over health issues.

First Published: Aug 07, 2019 17:36 IST