“We must preserve our cultural identity.”

Indian lawyer, politician and diplomat

Sushma Swaraj was an Indian lawyer, politician and diplomat, active in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Born in 1952 and died in 2019, she is remembered for senior roles in Indian public life, including Chief Minister of Delhi and Minister of External Affairs. She served as Delhi’s first female chief minister for a brief period in 1998, and later held the foreign affairs portfolio from 2014 to 2019 in the first Modi ministry. A senior BJP नेता, she was elected seven times to the Lok Sabha and three times to state assembly seats. The record also notes her early rise in Haryana, where at 25 she became the youngest cabinet minister in the state.