Sushma Swaraj passes away: Rajnath Singh hails the People's Minister, says it's a monumental loss

Union minister Rajnath Singh has condoled the demise of former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who passed away on Tuesday, August 6, 2019, after suffering a cardiac arrest in New Delhi.

Born in Ambala cantonment in what is now Haryana on February 14, 1954, Sushma Swaraj majored in Sanskrit and Political science at the Sanatan Dharma College in the Ambala Cantonment, before studying law at the Punjab University.

She started practicing law as an advocate at the Supreme Court of India in 1973, and in the same decade, also joined the ABVP.

She participated in Jayprakash Narayan's movement during the Emergency and subsequent to that, joined the newly founded BJP.

In a pathbreaking political career, she served as the Chief Minister of Delhi, and then, in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, as a union minister in multiple ministries. 

In the Modi government, she was appointed as the External Affairs Minister - a portfolio she redefined owing to her hands-on approach wherein she would often respond to citizens'queries on Twitter.

She declined to contest the 2019 L