My Mother is Gone, Says Geeta, the Indian Woman Sushma Swaraj Brought Home from Pakistan

Bhopal: The news of BJP stalwart Sushma Swaraj’s death has completely shattered Geeta, the hearing and speech-impaired woman, whose return from Pakistan was nothing short of a moving story and became possible only due to the efforts of the former external affairs minister.

Swaraj passed away following a cardiac arrest at AIIMS, New Delhi, on Tuesday night. One of the best politicians to have taken charge of the external affairs ministry, Swaraj, who had scores of success stories of bringing back stranded citizens from foreign land, had also helped Geeta return to India after she had inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan where she spent 10 years.

Since her return in 2015, she has been living at an Indore-based volunteer organisation meant for especially abled girls. Swaraj had called her ‘India’s daughter’.

Geeta was informed about the death of her “guardian” only on Wednesday morning. Since then, she hasn’t spoken much and wore a dejected look.

“My mother is gone and I am orphaned now. Who will take care of me,” she explained with the help of sign language,

“She used to meet me whenever she came to Indore and used to call me up on phone. I did not get to talk to her for one month as she was unwell,” she added.

With a photograph of Swaraj in her hand, Geeta has been watching updates on her mother’s last journey on television since morning, a volunteer at the shelter home said.

Swaraj, besides taking regular updates of Geeta, had entrusted her responsibility on Union Minister Thavar Chand Gehlot, who hails from the region. Through Gehlot, Swaraj had also provided a laptop to Geeta.

Sandip Pandit, the volunteer, said Geeta had tried to talk to Swaraj in July, but her personal assistant had told her that the former union minister was not keeping well and would not be able to talk.

In the past, Swaraj had also issued instructions for finding a suitable match for Geeta and several men were introduced to her, though she has rejected all of them. A hectic search for Geeta’s parents has not yielded any success either.

The woman’s story had inspired the making of the superhit Bollywood movie ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ featuring Salman Khan and child artist Harshaali Malhotra, along with Kareena Kapoor Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in supporting roles.