Former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj passes away at 67

Former Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj passed away on August 6 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi. She was 67.

The senior BJP leader was brought to AIIMS between 9:30pm and 10:00pm and was straight away taken to the emergency ward. AIIMS doctors said she died of a cardiac arrest.

Several senior ministers, including Harsh Vardhan, Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani Prakash Javadekar, reached AIIMS after she was admitted to the hospital.

Hours before her demise, Swaraj had put out a tweet in the evening congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Centre's move to revoke special status for Jammu and Kashmir. She had said:

प्रधान मंत्री जी - आपका हार्दिक अभिनन्दन. मैं अपने जीवन में इस दिन को देखने की प्रतीक्षा कर रही थी. @narendramodi ji - Thank you Prime Minister. Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime.

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 6, 2019

Prime Minister Modi, in his tweets, hailed Swaraj as a "prolific orator and outstanding parliamentarian" and said she was admired and revered across party lines.

She had a kidney transplant in 2016 and had opted out of contesting Lok Sabha polls earlier this year for health reasons.

She is survived by her husband Swaraj Kaushal and daughter Bansuri.

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