International Women’s Day : Remembering Supermom - Sushma Swaraj

International women's day : Remembering Sushma Swaraj the Supermom, and opening of two new Shows at Nehru Science Centre.

Like most other institutions all over the world,  we too celebrated the International Women's Day today (March 8) by opening two new facilities and organising a special training programme exclusively for women. Ms Arundhati Bhattacharya, former Chairman State Bank of India opened these two facilities and addressed the audience briefly. International Women’s Day is celebrated globally by recounting and celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and reminding ourselves of a call to action for accelerating gender parity, particularly in the field of science. It has been more than a century since this day -  8th March - has been commemorated as a special day for women.  Interestingly it was on this very day in 1908 that  the women labours movement started as a united march in which some 15000 women marched in an organised way through the New York City demanding shorter working hours and better pay and right to vote for women who until then were treated unequally not just in US, but globally.  Encouraged by the response that the women’s march received the Socialist Party of America joined hands and demanded for declaring the day as  the National Woman's Day. The idea to convert this day into an international women’s  day  came from Clara Zetkin, who suggested this idea during the International Conference of Working Women, which was held in Copenhagen in 1910. The conference was attended by some 100 women from 17 countries, who unanimously agreed on her suggestion. In the very next year, 1911, this day was celebrated as the Women’s day in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Therefore technically speaking, this year, we are celebrating the 109th International Women's Day.  However it was only in 1975 that the  United Nations (UN) acknowledged and started celebrating this day as International Women’s Day. Every year there is a theme for the commemoration of the day and this year the theme is ‘An Equal World is an Enabled World’. Interestingly enough the idea for an International Women's Day had no fixed date. However the Russian women went on  a war-time strike, in 1917 and demanded "bread and peace". This resulted in the Tsar loosing control over his reign and the interim government which was formed granted women the right to vote. The women’s strike in Russia started on a Sunday 23rd February of the Julian calendar, which was in vogue in Russia. But then with the onset of the Gregorian calendar, this day became 8th March.

Google is one constant that connects us globally and Google Doodle celebrates all such global events and this year’s International Women’s Day was celebrated by the Google Doodle with an animated video. The doodle features multilayered 3D paper mandala animation. As put by Google, "It honours women coming together throughout the world and generations."

Politics is one area in which brilliance of women has been exhibited all across the globe and India has been no different. Mrs. Indira Gandhi, remained a very tall leader of India and the oldest political party in India -Congress party  - is headed by Ms Sonia Gandhi.  Although the number of women in politics and science and other major areas has always been relatively small, but even so their power now feels more tenuous than ever. 

On the occasion of International Women's Day, I wish to take this opportunity to remember one such important and powerful lady - Ms Sushma Swaraj - of the ruling party who won the hearts of many people, particularly as people’s external affairs minister. She died recently at a relatively young age and that makes it all the more necessary for me to be paying my respect to her.  Sushma Swaraj, at the age of 25, became the youngest state cabinet minister in India. At 27, she became the state president of her party (Janata Party). Later in her career, she became the first woman chief minister of Delhi, the second woman to become the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the first full-time woman external affairs minister of India.

The 6th of August, a special day globally, known for the bombing of Hiroshima and the subsequent peace that dawned and brought to close the deadly WWII, witnessed two historic moments in India - the passing of the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha and the most tragic passing away of Peoples Minister, the Super Mom - Sushma Swaraj. The BJP unwittingly chose this historic day - 6th of August - to pass their Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha, which created a new destiny for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. What an irony and uncertainty of life, just a few hours before on the 6th of August, at around 6 PM or so Sushma ji had tweeted ‘प्रधान मंत्री जी - आपका हार्दिक अभिनन्दन. मैं अपने जीवन में इस दिन कोदेखने की प्रतीक्षा कर रही थी. ‪@narendramodi‬ ji’ to congratulate the Hon PM for the passage of the Kashmir bill and abolition of the article 370 in whose favour she had made a fiery speech in the Parliament as an opposition leader in 1996. In less than 4 hours of her last tweet, she bid adieu to the materialistic world for her permanent residence in the heavenly abode.

Hundreds of thousands of admirers of Sushma ji - the people’s leader - including the who’s who of the country; the Honourable President, the Prime Minister, the Vice President and most of the cabinet colleagues, opposition leaders - cutting across party lines - and innumerable other leaders and ordinary men and women had thronged to the BJP headquarters in Delhi, where her mortal remains were taken, to pay their last respect to Sushma ji. Unending number of people poured out their emotion, love, affection, admiration and reverence of unprecedented proportions to the departed leader. What a leader she was, the whole nation joined in admiring her contributions while paying their extraordinary tributes to Sushma ji,  the par excellence people’s politician, who truly epitomised what public service means for the empowerment of the people - whom they are elected to govern. 

Sushma ji even in her demise, in her inimitable style, she has served her country and contributed to the well being of the nation by shifting  the focus from the Kashmir issue to her untimely death. News of the demise of Sushma Swaraj diverted the attention of the people from Kashmir issue and the news of her death occupied the precious front page and prime time space in all media, which would otherwise have been filled with politicking news on the J&K bill, and may have caused unrest in the  country particularly in the Kashmir valley. Sushma ji served her country even in her death. She was one of those aberration few political leaders who remained a compulsive public servant and an extraordinary nationalist for whom public good and service to the nation and its citizens was paramount. Sushma Swaraj has carved a special place not just in the heart and minds of her party - with effective presentation of her views both inside and outside Parliament - but also among the rest of the countrymen. 

Sushma ji was an archetypal Indian women sporting that trademark big red bindi, कुमकुमon her forehead, wide bordered saris and that inimitable smile, which were all an embodiment of revered Indian womanhood, which Indians worship as maa Durga, Laxmi and Saraswati. A motherly outlook that she embodied all through her Ministership, particularly as the External Affairs Minister in the Modi 1.0 Government, rightly found a mention in the Washington Post article, which headlined her as ‘Supermom’. Notwithstanding the vilification she was meted out as saviour of Reddy Brothers, she continued to remain tall in her stature and firmly grounded with people, the evidence of which could be seen from the fact that she was one of those tall leaders, who received unprecedented appreciation from the Prime Minister for her contributions not just to the party but to the whole of India. She learnt Kannada - my mother tongue - while contesting in a loosing cause against Sonia Gandhi from Bellary. One may agree or disagree, she made a forceful point of pledging to shave her head, don a white saree and eat groundnuts (symbollically mourning) if Sonia, the Italian-born Congress leader, became Prime Minister, in 2004, when UPA surprised NDA to snatch a victory in the parliamentary elections. 

Born in 1952, she was elected as a Janata Party MLA in Devi Lal's government and became the youngest (25 - 26 years) Cabinet Minister of Labour and Employment (1977-1979) in Haryana. She joined the BJP in 1980. Under a combined Lok Dal-BJP government led by Devi Lal, she was the Cabinet Minister of Education, Food and Civil Supplies (1987-1990). She was judged Best Speaker of Haryana State Assembly for three consecutive years. She was the first official women spokesperson of BJP - a first for of all the political parties in India. She was a gifted orator, and her oratory skills matched those of stalwarts like Atal ji, Advani ji, and our PM Modi. Sushma ji was appointed as the the union cabinet minister for Information and Broadcasting in the Vajpayee government in 1996, which survived for a mere thirteen days. It was during this period that she took a revolutionary step of live telecasting of Lok Sabha debates, which have now become a norm. She served as a member of parliament for six terms during which she has held very important positions including serving as the leader of opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha. She was also elected as an MLA from Delhi in 1998 and in the same year - in October 1998 - she became the first woman Chief Minister of Delhi. She was that illusory अजतशत्र in the world of politics the evidence of which was played out in the outpouring of emotions and tributes by political leaders cutting across parties. Her political career graph is a manifestation of her role in Indian politics.

It was during her tenure as the External Affairs Minister that she transformed the hitherto known ministry for the higher echelons of society into a people’s Ministry by providing a human face to the External Affairs Ministry, for the first time ever. She was one compulsive troubleshooter for any Indian stuck anywhere in the world, and this act of hers is now a folklore story which played out extensively on the twitter post the news of her death. Sushma ji took personal interest in resolving minor issues which included apparently mundane issuance of visa to the needy, including those from Pakistan, and getting the much needed relief to Indians in distress across the globe. She helped in building an extraordinary image for her party among the expats and the response was an outpouring of support for the Modi government from the non-resident Indian community. 

Sushma ji, due to her ailments, had announced her retirement from electoral politics and did not contest the 2019 parliamentary elections. It was hoped that this much needed break and rest would nurse her back to better health but then destiny had a different role for her and she was untimely snatched from all of us at a very young age of just 67, by the almighty in to the abode that she now dwells. Sushma ji, you will ever be remembered for your extraordinary service to the nation. On this International Women’s  Day , once again I take this opportunity to pray for the Supermom to Rest in Peace.

Om Shanti.

Jai Hind and Jai नारि शक्ति।