18 Sushma swaraj

Sushma Swaraj was born on 14 February 1952 is an Indian politician, former Supreme Court lawyer and the current Minister of External Affairs of India, in office since 26 May 2014. A leader of Bhartiya Janata Party, Swaraj is the second woman to be India's Minister of External Affairs, after Indira Gandhi. She has been elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of north Indian state of Haryana. She also served as 5th Chief Minister of Delhi for a brief term in 1998. In the 2014 Indian general election, she won the Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh for a second term, retaining her seat by a margin of over 400,000 votes. She became the Minister of External Affairs in the union cabinet on 26 May 2014. Swaraj was called India's 'best-loved politician' by the US daily Wall Street Journal. In 1973,Swaraj started practice as an advocate in the Supreme Court of India. Swaraj began her political career with Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad in the 1970s. Sushma Swaraj became a part of George Fernandez's legal Defence team in 1975. She actively participated in Jayaprakash Narayan's Total Revolution Movement. After the Emergency, she joined the Bhartiya Janata Party. Later, she became a national leader of the BJP. In April 1990, she was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha and remained there until she was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha from South Delhi constituency in 1996. She was Union Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting during the 13-day government of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996. she was sworn in as Union Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting with additional charge of the Ministry of Telecommunications from 19 March 1998 to 12 October 1998. Her most notable decision during this period was to declare film production as an industry, which made the Indian film industry eligible for bank finance. Prior to this, the film industry was heavily financed by the underworld on high rate of interest. This one decision liberated film industry from the clutches of the underworld. She also started community radio at universities and other institutions. She was Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs from January 2003 until May 2004, when the National Democratic Alliance Government lost the general election. As Union Health Minister, she set up six All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Bhopal (MP), Bhubaneshwar (Odisha), Jodhpur(Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand). Swaraj was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha for third term in April 2006 from Madhya Pradesh state. She served as the Deputy leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha till April 2009. Swaraj has been serving as the Indian Minister of External Affairs under Prime Minister Narendra Modi since May 2014, responsible for implementing the foreign policy of Narendra Modi. She is only the second woman to hold this position after Indira Gandhi. In 1977, she became the youngest ever Cabinet Minister in the country at 25 years of age. In 1979, she became State President of Janata Party, Haryana State at the young age of 27. Sushma Swaraj was the first female Spokesperson of a national political party in India. She has many firsts to her credit as BJPs first female Chief Minister, Union Cabinet Minister, general secretary, Spokesperson, Leader of Opposition and Minister of External Affairs. She is the Indian Parliament's first and the only female MP honoured with the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award. She has contested 11 direct elections from four states. She has served as the President of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in Haryana for four years.