NEW DELHI: Sujatha Singh, who was sacked as Foreign Secretary, is a bright diplomat in her own right, but simply could not keep pace with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign policy vision with out of box ideas particularly with regard to neighbourhood and big powers.
Adept at handling crisis situation like Indian student trouble in Australia in 2010 and lately Devyani Khobragade case, Singh was not forward looking enough to shape a big picture desired by Modi, sources, who did not wish to be identified told ET. A 1976-batch-IFS Sujatha Singh resigned from service after an order was issued to remove her and wrote there that she has sought voluntary retirement from service.
Known as a hard-working diplomat, Singh's forte was Europe having handled Europe division in MEA and later as Ambassador in Germany. However, sources claimed she probably did not live up to expectations of the PM in shaping India's strategic vision of a powerful country that would negotiate from a position of strength and explore new areas of cooperation be it near abroad or far abroad.
Even as she was appointed with intervention of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in 2013, overruling the PM, on the basis of seniority in service, narrow political consideration was not reason for her removal, experts claimed. "The current ruling leadership particularly the PM did not get along with Singh after the initial two months post elections. Beginning last September -- ahead of his US visit - PM's dependence on Singh reduced and he started communicating with Joint Secretaries of various MEA divisions directly for inputs and ideas. Her removal was on the cards and corridors of power had rumours. But it was not clear how it would be done," a source recalled.
Former Foreign Secretary and envoy to the USA Lalit Mansingh told ET, "It is prerogative of the PM of the day to have Foreign Secretary of his or her choice. Sujatha's removal in no way speaks of her ability. She has worked under me and she is an outstanding officer. So is Jaishankar and his appointment will add credibility to the Ministry. Her removal indicates that the political leadership and particularly the PM had lost confidence in her."
To buttress his point Mansingh pointed out that Jagat Meheta was removed as Foreign Secretary when Indira Gandhi returned to power in 1980. S K Singh was removed by V P Singh when he became PM in 1989 and A P Venkateswaran was sacked by Rajiv Gandhi in 1987, the former diplomat recalled.
However, another former foreign secretary, who did not wish to be identified, disapproved of the way Singh was removed and Jaishankar was appointed. "Such moves impact morale of the institution...if Jaishankar had to be brought in he should have been appointed in first place in 2013 instead of Sujatha," the senior diplomat opined.
In her resignation letter sent to all colleagues in the Ministry, Singh referred to successes achieved by Ministry under the new government. "...It is this inherent strength that has enabled MEAto rise consistently to the challenges presented to us - to prepare, to organise, to deliver and to follow up, on what has perhaps been the most charged, and indeed the most successful, calendar of any new Government's post-election foreign engagements," noted the former Foreign Secretary.
She also pointed out that institutions matter more than individuals in shaping policy what can be an indirect way of hitting at the government after she was removed. "While individuals can and do play a critical role in building institutions, I believe that no individual is larger than the institution. It can never be about individuals. It has to be about institutions and how institutions interface and coordinate with each other."
Singh is also known for doggedness, a quality which helped her to win diplomatic battles in past, however did not help her this time around in saving her job. It may be recalled that Sujatha had threatened to resign in mid-2013 when then PM Manmohan Singh was making moves to appoint Jaishankar (1977 batch IFS) as the Foreign Secretary from August of that year.
Then NSA Shivshankar Menon too was not favourably disposed to her, sources claimed. But with help coming from political establishment, Singh got the job as the senior most IFS officer after incumbent FS Ranjan Mathai vacated the chair after a two-year term. The Congress government, which had earlier incurred the wrath of certain IFS officers who were superceded while appointing Menon as IFS in 2006, was not keen to repeat the act.
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