In mid-2014, Sushma Swaraj took charge as India’s Minister of External Affairs. Most political pundits did not see this coming. As many of them said at the time, ‘it was an ‘unexpected choice.’ A graceful lady with a cheerful smile and a clear mind, Swaraj preferred to work in Hindi at a time when most of the South Block was not.
When she took charge, the Ministry of External Affairs, of which I was a part of, had to readjust. At the time, I was posted as India’s Ambassador to Indonesia and ASEAN – and I knew that I was going to see a change in the MEA very soon.
I had seen Sushma Swaraj in action before. A young socialist, she fought against the Emergency and rose to great political heights in Haryana, circa 1977. Back then, I was a young, idealistic student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University; she, a part of the younger generation of politicians.
I interacted with her formally when she became the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of the Parliament, during Dr Manmohan Singh’s second term as the Prime Minister. At the time, as per tradition, the leader of the opposition called on visiting heads of state after the External Affairs Minister held his or her meetings.
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