Jump to content

Sushma Swaraj

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Strike Eagle (talk | contribs) at 15:36, 12 August 2014 (spell). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Sushma Swaraj
MP
Minister of External Affairs
Assumed office
26 May 2014
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded bySalman Khurshid
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha
In office
21 December 2009 – 26 May 2014
Preceded byL. K. Advani
Succeeded byVacant
Chief Minister of Delhi
In office
13 October 1998 – 3 December 1998
GovernorVijai Kapoor
Preceded bySahib Singh Verma
Succeeded bySheila Dikshit
Member of Parliament
for Vidisha
Assumed office
13 May 2009
Preceded byRampal Singh
Personal details
Born (1952-02-14) 14 February 1952 (age 72)
New Delhi, India
Political partyBharatiya Janata Party
SpouseSwaraj Kaushal
Alma materSanatan Dharma College,[1] Ambala Cantt, Haryana
Panjab University, Chandigarh

Sushma Swaraj pronunciationⓘ (born 14 February 1952) is an Indian politician and the current Minister of External Affairs of India. She is the second woman to be India's external affairs minister, first being the late Indira Gandhi (22 August 1967 to 14 March 1969). She has been elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25, she became Haryana's youngest Cabinet Minister and has also served as Chief Minister of Delhi.[2] In Indian general election, 2014, she won from Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh.[3] She became the External Affairs Minister in union cabinet on 26 May 2014. She retained her Vidisha parliamentary seat by over 400,000 votes in the 16th lok Sabha in the general election held in May 2014.

Early life

Sushma Swaraj was born at Ambala Cantt in a Brahmin family[4] on 14 February 1952.[5] Her father was a prominent RSS member. She was educated at S. D. College, Ambala Cantonment and earned a Bachelors degree with majors in Sanskrit and Political Science. She studied law at Punjab University, Chandigarh, and practised as a Supreme Court of India Advocate from 1973.[6]

Political career

Swaraj began her political career with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in the 1970s.[citation needed] She joined the Janata Party movement and campaigned against The Emergency. She was a member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly from 1977 to 1982 from Ambala Cantonment defeating then-Minister of Defence and four-time Chief Minister of Haryana Bansi Lal by 63% votes at the age of 25 and then again from 1987 to 90.[7] In July 1977, she was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister in the Janata Party Government headed by Devi Lal. She became State President of Janata Party (Haryana) in 1979, when she was 27. She was Education Minister, Haryana in the Bharatiya Janata Party–Lok Dal coalition government during 1987–90.[6]

Member of Parliament

In April 1990, she was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha and remained there until she was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha from South Delhi constituency in 1996. She was Union Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting during the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government in 1996. During this tenure, she started live telecast of Lok Sabha debates.[citation needed]

Union Minister I&B & Telecommunications

She was re-elected to 12th Lok Sabha from South Delhi Parliamentary constituency for a 2nd term in 1998. Under the second Vajpayee Government, she was sworn in as Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting with additional charge of the Ministry of Telecommunications from 19 March to 12 October 1998. Her most notable decision during this period was to declare film as an industry, which made the film industry eligible for bank finance. Prior to this, the film industry was financed by the underworld on heavy rate of interest. This one decision liberated film industry from the clutches of the underworld. She also started community radio by the Universities and other institutions.

Chief Minister of Delhi

She resigned from the Union Cabinet to take over as the first female Chief Minister of Delhi in October 1998. BJP lost the Assembly elections because of rising prices and inflation. She resigned her Assembly seat and returned to national politics.

Contest against Sonia Gandhi

In 1999, BJP nominated her to contest against the Congress party's President, Sonia Gandhi, from the Bellary constituency in Karnataka, which had always returned Congress winners since India's independence. During her campaign, she addressed public meetings in Kannada. She secured 358,000 votes in just 12 days of campaign. However, she lost the election by a 7% margin.[8]

Back in Parliament and Union Cabinet

She returned to Parliament in April 2000 as a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. She was allocated to Uttrakhand when the new state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh.[9] She was inducted into the Union Cabinet as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, which position she held from September 2000 until January 2003.

Union Health Minister

She was Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs from January 2003 until May 2004, when the National Democratic Alliance Government lost the general election. As Union Health Minister, she set up six AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) at Bhopal (MP), Bhubaneshwar (Odisha), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Rishikesh (Uttrakhand).

Deputy Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha

Swaraj was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 2006 from Madhya Pradesh. She served as the Deputy leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha till April 2009.

Leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha

She won the 2009 election to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh by the highest margin of over 400,000 votes. Sushma Swaraj became Leader of Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha in place of Lal Krishna Advani on 21 December 2009 and retained this position till May 2014 when in Indian general election, 2014 her party got a major victory.[10][11][12] [13]

Foreign Minister

Main article: Foreign policy of Narendra Modi

Distinctions and records

In 1977, she became the youngest ever Cabinet Minister in the country at 25 years of age. In 1979, she became State President of Janata Party, Haryana State at the young age of 27. Sushma Swaraj was the first female Spokesperson of a national political party in India. She has many firsts to her credit as BJPs first female Chief Minister, Union Cabinet Minister, general secretary, Spokesperson and Leader of Opposition. She is the Indian Parliament's first and the only female MP honoured with the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award. She has contested 11 direct elections from four states. She has been a member of parliament/legislator for 30 years.[citation needed]

Personal life

Swaraj is married to Swaraj Kaushal, a senior advocate of Supreme Court of India and a criminal lawyer who served as Governor of Mizoram from 1990 to 1993. Swaraj Kaushal was a member of parliament from 1998 to 2004. They have a daughter, Bansuri, who is a graduate from Oxford University and a Barrister at Law from Inner Temple.[14][15]

Positions held

  • 1977–82 and 1987–90 Elected as Member, Haryana Legislative Assembly.[6]
  • 1977–79 Cabinet Minister, Labour and Employment, Government of Haryana.[6]
  • 1987–90 Cabinet Minister, Education, Food and Civil Supplies, Government of Haryana.[6]
  • April 1990 Elected to Rajya Sabha(1st term)
  • 1996 Member, Eleventh Lok Sabha(2nd term).
  • 16 May – 1 June 1996 Union Cabinet Minister, Information and Broadcasting.[6]
  • 1998 Member, Twelfth Lok Sabha (3rd term).
  • 19 March – 12 Oct 1998 Union Cabinet Minister, Information and Broadcasting and Telecommunications (Additional charge).
  • 13 October – 3 December 1998 Chief Minister of Delhi.
  • November 1998 Elected from Hauz Khas Assembly constituency of Delhi Assembly. Resigned from Delhi Assembly and retained Lok Sabha seat.
  • April 2000 Elected to Rajya Sabha (4th term).[5]
  • 30 Sep 2000–29 Jan 2003 Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
  • 29 Jan 2003 – 22 May 2004 Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.
  • April 2006 Re-elected to Rajya Sabha (5th term).[16]
  • 16 May 2009 Elected to the 15th Lok Sabha (6th term).[6]
  • 3 June 2009 Elected as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.[6]
  • 21 Dec 2009 Leader of the Opposition and replaced Lal Krishna Advani.
  • 26 May 2014 External Affairs Minister in the Union of India

References

  1. ^ http://archive.india.gov.in/govt/loksabhampbiodata.php?mpcode=3812
  2. ^ "At a glance: Sushma Swaraj, from India's 'youngest minister' to 'aspiring PM'". India TV. 15 June 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  3. ^ BJP's Sushma Swaraj to contest Lok Sabha polls from Vidisha constituency. NDTV.com (13 March 2014). Retrieved on 21 May 2014.
  4. ^ "The push for a Swaraj party". Tehelka. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  5. ^ a b Brief Bio-data. Member of Rajya Sabha. Sushma, Shrimati
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h "Detailed Profile – Smt. Sushma Swaraj – Members of Parliament (Lok Sabha) – Who's Who – Government: National Portal of India". India.gov.in. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  7. ^ "Compendium of General Elections to Vidhan Sabha (1967–2009) in Haryana State" (PDF). NIC. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  8. ^ http://ibnlive.in.com/politics/electionstats/constituency/1999/s10/5.html
  9. ^ SUSHMA SWARAJ (1952--)
  10. ^ "Advani quits as Leader of Opposition". Retrieved 18 December 2009.
  11. ^ "New India opposition leader named". BBC News. 18 December 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  12. ^ "Lok Sabha". NIC. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  13. ^ . saharasamay. 16 May 2014 http://www.saharasamay.com/nation-news/lok-sabha-elections-2014/results/676553218/live-2014-lok-sabha-election-results-bjp-gets-majority-alone.html. Retrieved 20 May 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ^ "A sneak peek into Sushma Swaraj's life". Dainik Bhaskar. 28 March 2013. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  15. ^ "Sushma Swaraj re-invents herself in a party dominated by Narendra Modi". The Economic Times. 25 February 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  16. ^ Detailed Profile – – Members of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) – Who's Who – Government: National Portal of India. India.gov.in. Retrieved on 30 July 2011.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of External Affairs
26 May 2014 		Incumbent
Preceded by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha
2009–2014 		Vacant

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sushma_Swaraj&oldid=620928759"