A top source in the government told ET that the PMO had made the decision to make Jaishankar the foreign secretary as early as the first week of October. Corroborating this, a BJP leader in the know said the decision was, however, not officially shared with the foreign ministry. "But it created a strong buzz. Swaraj was seen as backing Singh. She even sent out the message that removing her - a woman and a Dalit - seven months before her tenure ended would be bad optics for the government," he said.
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made up his mind on appointing Jaishankar and felt that any tough decision is bound to generate some controversy. "Decisions in national interest must be seen above gender and caste," the BJP leader said. On Thursday, Swaraj said she "was very much a part of the decision" to appoint Jaishankar as foreign secretary and had told Singh about the government's plan. Since Jaishankar was retiring on January 31, "we had to issue orders of his appointment before that date", the minister tweeted.
The PM, sources said, wasn't comfortable with Singh as foreign secretary ever since he formed the government. "He was of the view that she lacked the imagination to take India to the next level globally. She could not play several equations at the same time as the PMO wanted on the external affairs front," said a top government official.
This is in sharp contrast to the skillsets that Jaishankar, India's Ambassador the US, brings in. A fluent speaker in Russian, Jaishankar was India's longest serving Ambassador in China. He is known for his equations with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's office, has been a pointsman to ASEAN, and is one of the architects of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Modi's foreign policy approach is that of multi-alignment. "Closer ties with the US do not exclude robust trade ties with China. And at the same time, commitment to cooperate with Beijing on economic issues does not mean that India has given up its security interests and concerns about the long-standing border dispute. The PM felt that Jaishankar was the right person for the job," the official said.
"The government could not have waited any longer. Jaishankar was retiring on January 31, and it had to be before that. Also, the decision could only be announced after President Barack Obama had left our air space. The window was small and thus the seemingly abrupt removal (of Singh)," a former diplomat told ET.
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