New Delhi, Sept. 3: Nirmala Sitharaman should know a thing or two about defence: as BJP spokesperson, she had for years been one of Narendra Modi's lead defenders against the Opposition's attacks over the 2002 Gujarat pogrom.
Modi's decision to pick the ministerial greenhorn to marshal the country's defence may have left many surprised today, but promotions have tended to come fast to this 58-year-old since she joined the BJP as late as 2006.
The entry hadn't just been a late one; it was rather unexpected too. Married into a political family, she had shown little inclination for politics.
None in her husband's family was into the BJP; and her own background, far from being a saffron one, was a PhD in economics from JNU, the repository of all ill to today's BJP.
Her career began as a shop assistant, of all things, with a London home decor store before Pricewaterhouse snapped her up as a researcher.
Sitharaman's tangential association with the BJP began when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government appointed her a member of the National Commission for Women, which she served between 2003 and 2005.
Removed by the UPA, she opened a policy research centre in Hyderabad and a school for the underprivileged in a village. This NGO stint brought her in touch with Sushma Swaraj, who headed a parliamentary committee on women and child development.
She also got involved with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's economic outfit, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, whose agenda mirrored her concerns about globalisation's impact on developing countries like India - a subject her PhD dissertation had touched on.
At the time a talent-deprived BJP was looking for fluent speakers of English who could propagate the party line. So, Sushma and former party president Rajnath Singh approached her to become a member of the BJP national executive.
Sitharaman says her friends and family persuaded her to accept the offer because "it is not every day that a national party gives you something like this".
She joined the national executive in 2008. In 2010, she became the second woman after Sushma to become a BJP national spokesperson.
Sitharaman soon made a name for herself as the BJP's most aggressive and articulate face on television. She worked hard to improve her proficiency in Hindi, and got noticed by the upcoming leadership.
Her quick rise is attributed partly to her habit of keeping a low profile unlike some other members of the BJP Ladies' Club, a motley group of "traditional Indian women" and celebs. Sitharaman, however, credited her elevation today to "cosmic grace".
When Modi swept to power in 2014, Sitharaman was appointed minister of state with independent charge of commerce and industry although she wasn't even an MP then. It left her pleasantly surprised. Today she was stunned, according to people close to her.
Sitharaman makes a power couple with husband Parakala Prabhakar, the communication adviser to Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Born to a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin family in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, Sitharaman is said to have met Parakala, a Telugu Brahmin from Narsapur in coastal Andhra, at JNU.
Her father-in-law was a three-time Congress minister in Andhra and her mother-in-law an MLA. Her husband was briefly a spokesperson for Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party.
