New Delhi:
Sushma Swaraj had a many splendoured political career that spanned over four decades but it was the times she played cupid or declared Mars as the limit to ensure an Indian citizen’s homecoming that will remain etched in hearts, minds — and on social media.
As people in India and abroad mourned the sudden passing away of the former foreign minister on Tuesday night, they recalled fondly the politician who was always just a tweet away and used the microblogging platform to reach out.
In her five-year stint as External Affairs minister during the Narendra Modi-led government (2014-19), she became accessible enough for Indians to take the liberty of sharing even the smallest of their grievances, almost as if they were on a family WhatsApp group.
So much so that one gentleman even queried her about his refrigerator going kaput.
Swaraj united separated couples, expedited travels of bereaved families, got Indians out of trouble in foreign lands and more.
In August 2016, a Faizan Patel took to Twitter to draw Swaraj’s attention to his impending honeymoon which he would end up spending alone if the minister did not intervene swiftly.
Posting a photo of himself beside an empty seat with a picture of his wife, Patel tweeted, “This is how I am travelling with my wife as of now.”
Swaraj turned genie and came to the couple’s rescue.
“Ask your wife to contact me. I will ensure that she is with you on the next seat.”
“My office has reached you already. You will get a duplicate passport tomorrow. @faizanpatel,” she responded and the newly-weds were off on their romantic getaway in no time.
With her at the helm of affairs, travelling back to India, even under the most difficult of the circumstances, just seemed so much easier.
It was perhaps the conviction with which she carried out her job round-the-clock that gave people hope.
One of her popular tweets, “Even if you are stuck on the Mars, Indian Embassy there will help you” became almost synonymous with her hard working personality.
When a distressed wife sought the leader’s help to get her husband released from a jail in Azerbaijan, she said, “I have asked Indian Embassy in Azerbaijan to send me a report on this.”
When a sister reached out to her to expedite the passport application of her brother who was suffering from cancer and needed to travel, pat came the reply from the minister,”Yes, you will get the Passport immediately. @rpoghaziabad.”
When a daughter expressed her wish to travel to Patiala for her father’s last rites, Swaraj, despite holidays, pushed her case in the Indian High Commission in Canada, and tweeted, “… But this a very compassionate case. Please facilitate her visit to India. She has to attend the last rites of her father in Patiala. @HCI_Ottawa.”
Swaraj’s Twitter newsfeed also had its share of crazy requests that at times went beyond her job profile, and which she managed to turn down with admirable wit.
The most famous of the lot was the absurd plea for the minister to look into his refrigerator.
Swaraj was clearly not the one to dismiss it.
She won the internet over when she politely responded, “Brother I cannot help you in matters of a Refrigerator. I am very busy with human beings in distress.”
Her sense of humour and humility were also her weapons of choice while battling the troll army.
When a user, on a condolence tweet that she posted on the demise of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit recently, wrote that she, too, would be missed after she passes away, humility was all Swaraj had to offer.
“AAPKI BAHUT YAAD AAYEgi ek di #Sheela Dixit ji ki tarah Amma,” the user wrote, to which she had replied, “Is bhawana ke liye apko mera agrim dhanyawad. (I thank you in anticipation for this kind thought).”
And on Tuesday night, her last tweet was to congratulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Centre’s move to revoke the special status for Jammu and Kashmir.
“I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime,” she said in her prescient message.
A short while later, she died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. She was just 67.
