The 67-year-old was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) following a deterioration in her health on Tuesday evening. She passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest late in the night.
Sushma Swaraj's promptness in extending help via Twitter earned her the monicker 'The Millennial Minister'. Her last tweet thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Centre's decision on Jammu and Kashmir. "Thank you Prime Minister @NarendraModiji," it said, "Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime."
The 67-year-old was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) following a deterioration in her health on Tuesday evening. She passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest late in the night.
The microblogging site was her official interface with citizens. Her responsiveness on the platform earned her praise during her tenure as the foreign minister. An incident that took place in 2017 stands out the most: Pakistan nationals Shiraz and Hira Ahmed tweeted at her that they urgently required Indian visa to get to Noida for medical treatment of their 15-month-old baby girl.
Indo-Pakistan relations notwithstanding, Swaraj put humanity first and responded within hours. The family was issued visas and also given personalised assistance at the immigration counter at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. This approachability helped warm the hallowed halls of Parliament. It brought many requests her way: From brides needing visas to attend their wedding receptions, to pranksters asking her assistance for a response from customer service to fix household appliances. The latter bore the brunt of her sharp wit. When one Twitter user told her he wanted his defective refrigerator replaced, she replied, "Brother, I cannot help you in matters of a refrigerator. I am very busy with human beings in distress."
However, her tweet-happy fingers were also the target of criticism, with many dismissing it as a PR stunt. When one troll said, "Certainly its not Sushma Swaraj doing these tweets. Certainly, it is some PR guy doing his or her job for what they are being paid for (sic) ", s/he was quickly silenced by her reply: "Rest assured it's me, not my ghost."
Nation Mourns
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| The nation was shocked by the untimely demise of the former External Affairs Minister, who died of a heartattack on Tuesday after being rushed to AIIMS. PM Narendra Modi was one of the first to share his grief in a series of tweets, saying, “Sushma Ji’s demise is a personal loss...A glorious chapter in Indian politics comes to an end. Sushma Swaraj Ji was one of her kind. Even when her health was not good, she would do everything possible to do justice to her work. The spirit and commitment was unparalleled. |
In the run-up to the general elections, when she prefixed 'Chowkidar' to her name on the platform along with all BJP leaders, one troll cheekily remarked he thought she was the Foreign Minister. "I am doing Chowkidaari of Indian nationals and Indian interests abroad," she said.
Her spouse, Swaraj Kaushal, was sometimes embroiled in these online duels. When another user asked Kaushal his spouse's salary, he turned the patriarchal adage upside down and said: "Don't ask my age and Madam's salary. These are bad manners." Another time, someone asked Kaushal why he didn't follow his wife on Twitter. "Because I am not stranded in Libya or Yemen," he retorted.
While the nation has undoubtedly lost a leader, Twitterverse has become a less friendly and witty place indeed.
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