NEW DELHI: “For fashioning a novel brand of Twitter diplomacy”, Foreign Affairs magazine has named external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj one of 15 ‘Global Thinkers’ of the year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first to congratulate the indefatigable Swaraj, who’s in the august company of 14 other notable thinkers including Hillary Clinton, Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau.
Since she took office, Swaraj has tirelessly not just responded to tweets seeking help, she has actually taken prompt action to ensure people’s problems are solved. No problem is seen as too small or too big for her attention. And she’s even worked for the public while ailing and from a hospital room.
The external affairs minister has helped both Indians and non-Indians. Some months ago she commiserated with a British couple who were having trouble getting their daughter – born of surrogacy – a British passport. Most notably, she was instrumental in coming to the rescue of 10,000 migrant workers who were going hungry in the Gulf after either being laid off or because their salaries were withheld. It is in fact this episode that Foreign Policy took special note of.
“In July, Sushma Swaraj, India’s external affairs minister, tweeted to roughly 6 million followers that 10,000 Indian workers employed inside the kingdom faced a ‘food crisis.’ What followed was a weeks-long social media operation in which Swaraj posted information for migrants about rations provided by the Indian Embassy, claims for unpaid wages, and government-organized transportation home,” wrote Foreign Policy describing what put Swaraj on the list of influential decision-makers of 2016.
Swaraj, whom the Washington Post called “Supermom of the State”, underwent a kidney transplant four days ago. Yesterday, she was moved out of the Intensive Care Unit at Delhi’s AIIMS and doctors said she was recovering well.
The minister herself announced on Twitter last month that she was in AIIMS because of kidney failure. Soon after that several people on Twitter offered to donate a kidney to her. She has a fiercely protective fan base. When a graduate student recently tweeted Swaraj for help with an Australia visa, several people chastised the student for bothering the minister while she was in hospital.
The external affairs minister also has a wry sense of humour. One time a beleaguered consumer tweeted her for help with a faulty refrigerator. Consumer affairs is not under Swaraj’s ministerial ambit. But she replied. And how.
Bureau Report
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