Remembering Sushma Swaraj: What the ‘best loved Indian politician’ said about Article 370
Article 370, a long dream of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and many Hindu nationalists. One of those who strongly vouched for this was former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. Once called as India’s best-loved politician by Wall Street Journal, Swaraj succumbed to a cardiac arrest on August 6, 2019.
“Narendra Modi ji — Thank you Prime Minister. Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime,” was her last tweet marking the fulfillment of her dream- revocating Jammu and Kahmir’s special status.
On the historic eve when the upper house okayed abrogation of Article 370, Swaraj thanked Home Minister Amit Shah. “I congratulate the Home Minister Shri Amit Shah ji for his outstanding performance in Rajya Sabha,” she tweeted. This dream of hers was fulfilled 23 years after the fiery speech in 1996.
In 1996 in the Lok Sabha, the seven times elected MP, Swaraj, made one of her most iconic speeches when she defended the no-confidence motion against Atal Vihari Bajpayee’s government and stood for abolishing Kashmir’s special status. “Mr. Speaker, we are communal, because we advocate the singing of Vande Matram,” she said when advocating for repealing Kashmir’s special status.
“Yes, we are communal, because we fight for the respect of the national flag, we are communal, because we want to abolish the 370, we are communal, because we want to put an end to discrimination based on caste and creed in this country, yes we are communal, because we want to get the Uniform Civil Code implemented in this country. We are communal because we want the voices of the Kashmiri refugees to be heard,” she continued. The renowned orator, one of the finest, was lauded globally by benches for her humoured social media
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