Subrahmanyam Jaishankar takes over as foreign secretary - Livemint

Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj with foreign secretary Sujatha Singh and India’s ambassador to the US, S. Jaishankar during a ceremonial reception to US President Barack Obama at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday. Photo: PTI

Jaishankar, an officer of the 1977 batch who was due to retire on 31 January, described his new position as an “honour and a big responsibility” as he took charge. The 60-year-old, who has been India’s ambassador to the US, China and the Czech Republic, besides high commissioner to Singapore, will have a two-year term.

Jaishankar, son of late K. Subrahmanyam , one of India’s leading strategic analysts and civil servants, was a key member of the Indian team that negotiated the landmark India-US nuclear deal that was signed in 2008.

“He was due to retire in two days and we could not let him go,” said a minister in the Narendra Modi government.

Among Jaishankar’s top priorities will be the appointment of ambassadors to key posts such as the US and the permanent mission of India in Geneva.

The decision to appoint Jaishankar, who played a key role during PM Modi’s visit to the US in September and US President Barack Obama ’s just concluded three-day India visit, was taken by the appointments committee of the cabinet chaired by Modi on Wednesday.

Singh, the third woman to be appointed foreign secretary in August 2013, had six more months to serve before her retirement. The dismissal recalled the sacking of another foreign secretary, A. P. Venkateshwaran , by then PM Rajiv Gandhi during a press conference in January 1987.

“The government obviously took into consideration the merits of the new foreign secretary’s case for elevation as well as...the specific reasons why Singh had to be dismissed the way she was,” said former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal .

According to people familiar with Singh’s dismissal, Modi was unhappy with Singh’s style of working. “She could not grasp what the Prime Minister wanted done, she had an old world view of things” said a person who declined to be named.

An appointee of the former Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Singh was seen as a by-the-book diplomat. She was India’s envoy to Germany and the Indian high commissioner to Australia, besides joint secretary in charge of Europe West Division in the foreign ministry before taking office as foreign secretary.

Though appointed by the Manmohan Singh government, it was reportedly Jaishankar who was the former prime minister’s first choice as well. Singh’s appointment took place at the behest of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi , who reportedly backed her candidature given that her father, T.V. Rajeshwar , was a Congress loyalist.

Singh’s dismissal had the Congress questioning its timing.

“Is sacking of foreign secretary late retribution for her stand on Devyani Khobragade affair?” former information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari posted on micro-blogging website Twitter. He was referring to the tough stance taken by the ministry in December 2013 over the detention and arrest of diplomat Khobragade on charges of visa fraud in New York. India’s reaction resulted in a souring of relations with the US.

In response, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Nalin Kohli defended the move, saying the government was well within its rights to decide on the appointment of its officers. “There can’t be a political motive to everything,” Kohli said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

Modi reportedly took an early dislike to Singh when he did not appreciate a presentation she gave on foreign policy. “The Prime Minister wanted a crisp presentation and she was seen as long-winded,” a second person close to the development said.

Reports that Modi was likely to appoint Jaishankar or Arun Singh , India’s ambassador to France, as foreign policy adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office, surfaced soon after.

A third person recounted that Singh’s briefing to the media following the visit of the heads of state and governments of South Asian countries for Modi’s swearing-in on 26 May, too, left Modi unhappy despite Singh being given a precise brief on what was to be conveyed.

The result was that Modi instructed Singh to let ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin brief the media on the various meetings he had with leaders at the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in July in Brazil. Singh was also missing from a media briefing ahead of Obama’s visit on 22 January although it is the foreign secretary who looks after India’s relations with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

The third person cited above also said Modi was planning to replace her three months ago but went slow on the idea as her dismissal would have sent out a wrong message as the government was running campaigns on women’s empowerment.

Added to that was the fact that Jaishankar could not be relieved from his post in the US as he was seen as key to preparing the ground for Obama’s visit to India as chief guest of the Republic Day parade.

Meanwhile, a day after the government said her tenure as foreign secretary has been “curtailed”, Singh on Thursday claimed she had actually sought early retirement and said no individual is larger that the institution. Singh sent a farewell email to her colleagues which makes no reference to the abrupt end to her service.

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