A Cat With Nine Lives

At 25, she was the youngest MLA and minister in Haryana. She has since been chief minister and a Union minister twice, but Sushma Swaraj, 63, has never completed a full stint of five years.

Outlook Web Desk

Updated on: 7 February 2024 5:25 pm

Brought in as chief minister of Delhi after Madan Lal Khurana and Sahib Singh Verma failed to deliver, her three-month stint from October 1998 was not sufficient for the party to retain Delhi. It’s yet to win Delhi since 1999.
Depended on the infamous Reddy brothers in her campaign against Sonia Gandhi in Bellary in 1999. Claims she opposed their inclusion in the Yediyurappa cabinet, admits she was asked to tell them not to bring down his government.
After UPA victory in 2004, vowed to tonsure her head, drape herself in a white sari, sleep on the floor and eat only roasted gram if the Congress chose a ‘foreigner’ as PM. Sonia was elected, but declined to be PM.
In 2011, video clips of her dancing at Rajghat went viral and deemed to be inappropriate. Sushma said she had been dancing to patriotic songs and was trying to boost the morale of BJP workers protesting against UPA.
Her father Hardev Sharma was a member of the RSS in Ambala, but she put off a section of the Sangh parivar by declaring that Ayodhya had nothing to do with religion, that it was a part of the BJP’s political agenda.
When cross-border incidents hit a peak two years ago, Sushma excited hawks and hotheads by saying: “If Pakistan fails to return the head of ‘martyred’ soldier Hemraj, India should get 10 heads from Pakistan.”
Publicly criticised L.K. Advani for Jinnah comment; opposed the rise of Narendra Modi, once gave a PowerPoint presentation to show how his campaigns were negatively impacting states other than Gujarat.
Claiming that the Bhagvad Gita had answers to everything, she pushed for it to be declared national scripture in December 2014 and claimed the government had started processing the proposal.
Sunday Times story in London in June 2015 revealed her role in speaking to the British High Commissioner for issuing British travel papers to former IPL chief Lalit Modi, who has been refusing to return to India and face interrogation.