Thiruvananthapuram: The tender heart of former union minister Sushma Swaraj was revealed when she hugged two HIV-positive children at a meeting here in 2003.
This happened at the Press Club when she kissed the siblings, Benson and Bensy of Kollam, who had been ousted from their school. "AIDS is not spread through touching and hugging," she said and offered them medical aid.
The picture of the incident grabbed national and international media attention. The children had been ostracised after their parents died of HIV.
The local Congress leadership at Chathannoor had threatened that if the two were allowed to continue in the school, the remaining children will leave it.
They had contracted the virus from their mother who was infected by her Mumbai-based husband.
Even A.K. Antony, the then chief minister, who visited the children, had kept them at arm's length.
"Antony did not bother to comfort the children or touch them when he met them. The next day, the then union health minister Sushma Swaraj was scheduled to visit Hindustan Latex Ltd (now HLL Lifecare Ltd) where its PRO ensured a meeting with the children at the Press Club. The rest is history," recalled a senior journalist who covered the meeting.
The children were under the care of their grandparents, Geevarghese Johny, an ex-serviceman, and Salamma. Bency, the elder, died of encephalitis at the age of 15 at SAT Hospital here in 2010. After a few years, her grandfather also died. Benson,23, a college dropout, is being looked after by his grandmother, 67. Salamma expressed shock over the passing away of Sushma Swaraj.
