NEW DELHI: The last rites for Sushma Swaraj, the former external affairs minister, and a BJP stalwart, were conducted Wednesday with full state honours at the Lodhi Road crematorium in New Delhi. Thousands, including prominent personalities like Prime Minister Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and LK Advani attended the funeral and bid farewell to the deceased leader.

Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, several leaders of NDA as well as the opposition parties were also present at the funeral. Swaraj, one of India's most high profile woman politicians who died on Tuesday night, is particularly known for combining her hard-nosed politics with compassion and empathy, winning admirers across the political spectrum and among ordinary people whose lives she touched often, sometimes personally and often through social media. She had played an instrumental role in making sure of the safety of Indians who got into troubles in foreign nations.

Swaraj, who also won the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award twice, had also handled several strategically-sensitive issues, including Indo-Pak and Sino-India relations. Her role in resolving the prickly Doklam standoff between the Indian and Chinese sides will be remembered.