At 25, Sushma Swaraj was a Haryana MLA

Her connect with Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha from where was twice elected Lok Sabha MP in 2009 and 2014 is well known, but Sushma Swaraj’s earliest connect was with Haryana’s Ambala Cantonment, where she was born in 1952.

People in Ambala Cantt remember her as a person from a humble background who earned a law degree from Chandigarh’s Panjab University and was an acclaimed debater. From pursuing law in her home town, the feisty Swaraj switched to politics, initially joining the Janata Party and later moving on to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In 1977, when she was only 25, Swaraj became a lawmaker from Haryana’s Ambala Cantonment and went on to become the youngest minister in the state cabinet.

Her brother, Gulshan Rai Sharma, still lives in their old home in BC Bazaar, Ambala Cantt, where he is a practising ayurveda doctor. Her younger sister, Vandana, who was a member of the Haryana Public Service Commission, unsuccessfully fought the 2014 assembly election from Safidon in Haryana’s Jind district.

According to senior journalist Vijaya Pushkarna, who knew Swaraj from her university days, “She was such a compassionate and simple person that everyone respected her. She commanded respect from all, irrespective of political affiliation or age.”

Pushkarna said Swaraj had a photographic memory and remembered the first names of practically all her supporters. “Also, at the time of her daughter’s admission to Carmel Convent, she sat patiently and did not let anyone know she was a minister,” she said.

Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda recalled Swaraj fondly. He said Sushma behenji, whom he knew since 1977, had always been available whenever he needed guidance. “She was an institution in herself. An institution of compassion and simplicity,” he said.

Sudha Yadav, former MP and currently a member of the National Commission for Backward Classes, said she had always looked on Swaraj as an elder sister. “She was such a simple and humane person that every worker and leader respected her for her total dedication to her work,” she said.

Neeta Khera, a member of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission, recalled that when she sought Swaraj’s advice after being elected councillor from Ambala Cantt in the early 1990s, she told her to put her heart and mind into her work.

“She was very happy when her brother became a father. She danced with us and I saw her at her happiest at that time. Six months ago, I went to her Delhi residence to invite her for my son’s marriage. After offering me tea, she politely told me, ‘Neeta, I have had a kidney transplant, so I will not be able to attend the wedding ceremony. But I will surely come to your home.”.