One of the first overseas trips that India’s first full-time woman Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made as Minister of State for Commerce, was to Sydney for the G20 trade ministers’ meet.
As the meeting wound up, a summation of proceedings was made, including about previous agreements on agricultural products and public stockholding. At this point, she interrupted the summation asking that India's problems with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade facilitation pact and the valuation issues of agricultural products and public stockholding be put on record. It was an unexpected intervention, and marked a departure in trade talks. In polite, softly worded terms, the Minister made it clear that she was no pushover.
Ms. Sitharaman (58) cut her teeth in politics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as one of the founders of a new political group called The Free Thinkers, and it was when she was at the campus that the agitation that led to 1983 being declared a zero year took place. She, too, was hauled to the police station as one of the agitating students. In an interview to The Hindu , at the height of the Kanhaiya Kumar episode at her alma mater , she articulated the stand of the government on sedition charges being slapped against members of the JNU Students Union. It was a not-so-shrill response in a polarised atmosphere, and emphasised her utility to the government and the BJP as an articulate face of the party.
As a student, her subject was international trade (she didn’t defend her Ph.D. on General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade). Soon, she and her husband, Parakala Prabhakar (who belonged to a family of staunch Congress supporters), moved to the United Kingdom where she worked for consultancy firm Price Waterhouse Coopers. After returning to India in 1991, the Tiruchirapalli-born Ms. Sitharaman settled in Andhra Pradesh with her family, and started exploring possibilities in public life. She was drawn to the BJP, and served as a member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) between 2003 and 2005. She formally joined the BJP in 2006. As a newcomer she was quickly noticed for her articulation, and in 2010 she was part of the BJP’s national spokespersons panel.
Her rise in the party from then on has been steady, with her being made Minister of State for Commerce when the BJP won the 2014 polls. Her appointment as Defence Minister at a time when India has just ended a tense stand-off with China in Doklam, and procurement of equipment remains a big issue will be interesting to watch. It will be a role where her position of trust with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and her ability to articulate a nuanced position will be tested to the hilt.
