Bengaluru: The sudden demise of former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi on Tuesday night brought fond memories of her long association with Karnataka and the Kannada language, a BJP leader recalled early on Wednesday.
“Sushmaji shot into to fame in Karnataka when she contested against then Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the October 1999 mid-term Lok Sabha elections from Ballari in the state’s northwest region. Though she lost the election, she won the hearts of the people with her graceful conduct and decent campaign,” BJP spokesperson G. Madhusudan told IANS here.
Sushma passed away at the state-run AIIMS hospital in the national capital after a cardiac arrest. She was 67.
Sushma’s connection with the southern state dates back to the mid-1970s, when she was lodged for over a year from June 1975 in the Bangalore Central Jail after the Emergency was declared.
“Sushma was among the political leaders of the Jan Sangh party who were lodged in the jail along with our party’s stalwarts Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Madhu Dandavate and others in the Emergency era. She learnt to speak Kannada during her stay in the jail so well that she not only remembered it since then, but also campaigned effectively in the local language to connect with the locals,” reminisced the party’s three-time legislative council member Madhusudan.
Though Sushma lost in the only parliamentary election she contested from the state, she maintained her association with the rich mining town, about 300 km from Bengaluru, and its people, especially the women folk.
Sushma used to visit Ballari every year since 2000 for over a decade during Shravan month (August) as per the Hindu calendar, to perform ‘Varamahalakshmi puja’ (worship), which is done only by married women in south India on one of the four Fridays in the rainy month for peace, happiness and prosperity by invoking the blessing of Hindu Goddess of wealth Lakshmi.
“Sushma was also one of the party’s national leaders who campaigned across Karnataka during the general elections since March 1977, as she was popular and fluent in Kannada, to speak and as a symbol of Indian women and their traditions,” added Madhusudan.
In a related development, former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda expressed sadness over Sushma’s death and termed her departure a loss to the nation.
“May God give her family courage to bear the pain,” tweeted Gowda, who is also the supremo of the state’s regional party Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)), which was, till recently in power in the state in coalition with the Congress party.
