As external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj enhanced India's reputation, says Amit Shah

The untimely demise of Sushma Swaraj had left him as well as millions of party workers and her admirers in a state of shock, Union home minister and BJP president Amit Shah said on August 7, as he remembered the departed leader's stints in various positions in the opposition and in different governments.

Speaking to reporters after paying his last respects to Swaraj at her residence, Shah said as the external affairs minister in the first term of the Narendra Modi government, Swaraj had enhanced the country's reputation across the world and her death had left a void which would be hard to fill.

"Her untimely demise is not a big loss for the BJP alone, but also for national politics," he said.

Shah added that Swaraj zoomed across the political firmament like a bright star and made valuable contributions, whether as the Delhi chief minister or the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha or a minister in the first Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and then, in the Modi dispensation.

"The country will always remember her services," he said.