Samikhsya Bureau
Many might have been surprised at former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s last tweet wherein she thanks Prime Minister Narendra Modi for abrogation of the Article 370 that gave a unique and special autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.
But the party leaders and those who followed the senior BJP leader Late Swaraj were aware of her tough nationalistic stance that she used to often display. Often such a scenario was not in tune with the politics of socialistic background she was initially associated with.
Late Swaraj was a long time lieutenant of the likes of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar and a former socialist icon George Fernandes.
One such occasion was when as External Affairs Minister she had tweeted rather angrily. “Amazon must tender unconditional apology….They must withdraw all products insulting our national flag immediately.”
This was in January 2017 when online marketing giant Amazon’s portal in Canada started selling doormats fashioned around national flags. Sushma was very affirmative and categorical: “If this is not done forthwith, we will not grant Indian Visa to any Amazon official” and she further had said in as many words – “We will also rescind the Visas issued earlier”.
The doormat, sold by a third-party on Amazon’s Canadian portal, was later taken off.
Similarly, the vintage ‘hardliner’ Sushma Swaraj was in action when as the Leader of the Opposition she had said: “If we do not get Hemraj’s head, let’s get ten Pakistani soldiers’ heads”.
This was the time Lance Naik Hemraj Singh and his compatriot Sudhakar Singh were killed in Pakistani firing and sadly Hemraj’s ‘head’ was taken away.
“Yeh sar agar nahi aye, toh unke toh das sar ayen,” was how Sushma had said in 2013.
Little wonder thus shortly after Parliament on Tuesday gave its nod on making Article 370 inoperative in Jammu and Kashmir, Sushma took to Twitter and wrote: “…..I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime”.
A good orator who often had the knock out punch, the necessary poetic lines and the wit – also had made news when she had accused Congress and UPA leaders of making ‘huge money’ from Coalgate scam.
Her Hindi phrase ‘mota mal kamaya’ even left many of her colleagues and supporters stunned. In fact, a party leader – who later contested in West Bengal – told Sushma Swaraj later: “Such remarks attributed to you did not go well”.
In 1996 speech in Lok Sabha- when Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was forced to step aside – she had blasted out at the Congress, Leftists and other parties. “They have called us communal….Yes, we are communal. We are communal because we want to keep the honour of national flag high. We are communal because we want the Article 370 to go…..But they who butchered 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi (1984) are secular”.
With UNI inputs
