One of the senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Sushma Swaraj was elected as a Member of Parliament seven times and three times a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At just 25, she became the youngest cabinet minister of the Indian state of Haryana in 1977.

She was sworn in as the Union Minister Of External Affairs of India in 2014, making her the second woman in India to hold this position after Indira Gandhi. Recognizing India’s support in evacuating its citizens from Nepal during the earthquake in 2015, the Spanish government awarded her the esteemed Grand Cross of Order of Civil Merit.

In 2019, the decision to run for the 2019 Indian general election was railroaded due to health issues. On the 6th of August 2019, she was pronounced dead after succumbing to a cardiac arrest following a heart attack. In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award.