Tue 06 August 2019:
Sushma Swaraj, India’s former external affairs minister and a leader of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, died Tuesday at a hospital in New Delhi. She was 67.
Swaraj died of a heart attack and was rushed to the emergency ward of All India Institute of Medical Science hospital, the Press Trust of India reported. Swaraj was the external affairs minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet from 2014 to 2019. She distinguished herself with an active presence on social media, often replying to requests for help from Indians abroad.
After undergoing a kidney transplant during her tenure as minister, Swaraj decided not to run for this year’s general election, citing health issues. In a series of tweets, Modi said that Swaraj’s death was a “personal loss” and that she had worked tirelessly at India’s external affairs ministry.
Swaraj called it a “bold and historic decision.”
“Thank you Prime Minister. Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime,” she wrote.
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