Jaishankar to replace Sujatha Singh as foreign secretary

Free Karma

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Jaishankar to replace Sujatha Singh as foreign secretary - Rediff.com India News

In a sudden development, S Jaishankar, India's Ambassador to the United States, was on Wednesday night appointed Foreign Secretary, replacing Sujatha Singh whose tenure has been abruptly 'curtailed" by nearly 8 months.

The surprise announcement was made after a meeting of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Singh's two-year tenure was to end in August this year. A month ago, a top source in the Narendra Modi government had told Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com that S Jaishankar was likely to replace Sujatha Singh as foreign secretary.

We reproduce the story

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's ambassador to the United States, is likely to be appointed as India's next foreign secretary, replacing Sujatha Singh, who is due for retirement in August 2015, a top source in the Narendra Modi government told Rediff.com

The radical administrative decision is likely to create a strong reaction within the Indian Foreign Service. As the foreign secretary enjoys a fixed two-year tenure, Sujatha Singh would not like to make way willingly eight months before her retirement.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is backing Singh to stay on as foreign secretary. Swaraj's reluctance is understandable because the move will reflect on her own performance as EAM.Swaraj has, so far, made her mark amongst serving diplomats. Most senior diplomats swear by her talent to grasp quickly complex issues of international affairs.

The prime minister and his advisers feel Indian foreign policy's main aim is to propel the nation's economic growth. Modi has truly outstanding plans to implement in the SAARC bloc of countries. Nepal and Bhutan have already received special attention under the new government. Sujatha Singh -- only the third woman diplomat to serve as foreign secretary -- has not served at Indian missions in any of India's neighbours.

Dr Jaishankar is seen as a bigger player on a larger stage and considered suitable to go along with Modi's worldview. Dr Jaishankar -- whose father was the legendary guru of strategic affairs, K Subrahmanyam -- has the appetite to take bold decisions and capable of out of box thinking. Before he moved to Washington, DC, Dr Jaishankar served as ambassador in China and as high commissioner in Singapore. From the foreign service's 1978 batch, Dr Jaishankar was considered the front-runner to succeed Ranjan Mathai as foreign secretary last year.

Then prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who valued his work on the India-US nuclear agreement (Dr Jaishankar has a PhD in international relations, specialising in nuclear diplomacy) was willing to appoint him as foreign secretary, but succumbed to the pressure of his advisors and two senior Congress party leaders. Dr Singh settled for Sujatha Singh -- whose father is the former Intelligence Bureau director T V Rajeshwar -- going by the criteria of seniority.

Dr Jaishankar would have retired from the IFS in January 2015 in due course, but Dr Singh extended the tenure of six IFS officers in August 2013 by two years which included Dr Jaishankar who was then appointed India's ambassador to the US. Dr Jaishankar will now retire in December 2016.
 

dastan

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Having jaishankar around is a great bonus, another good move by NDA govt though it might upset some others
 

Ray

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If Sujata Singh was not pulling her weight, then it is fine.

The issue is, was she or was she not?

The Govt can take a call.
 

Neil

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its not with immediate effect i think.. he will replace the current incumbent after 6 months.
 

Free Karma

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If Sujata Singh was not pulling her weight, then it is fine.

The issue is, was she or was she not?

The Govt can take a call.
this TOI report says that the PM was not impressed with SS at all, and has been wanting this change for a while.
S Jaishankar takes charge as foreign secretary - The Times of India
From all accounts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been unimpressed with Singh and her work, and had made no secret of it in the past months. There had been talk of a change for some time, but foreign minister Sushma Swaraj is said to have wanted Singh to stay on.

The decision was finally taken to remove her after the Obama visit. Jaishankar was earlier needed in Washington to lay the groundwork for what Modi wanted to be two back-to-back headline-grabbing summits.

Jaishankar's appointment promises sweeping changes to the ministry of external affairs. In the past six months, no ambassadorial appointments have been cleared by the government. The MEA had sent in recommendations but they were not cleared by the PMO, partly because the PM wanted to make the changes at the helm first. A slew of ambassadorial and joint secretary changes are waiting to be made which are now likely to go through. Among the first decisions will be to appoint a successor to Jaishankar in Washington DC.

Jaishankar will start work on Thursday, and in the first week of February will preside over the first heads of mission meeting called during the NDA government. He is expected to get a freer hand in MEA because the PM believes he can take out-of-the-box decisions.
Other sources have said Jaishankar was actually a well performing officer, and was tipped to take the job , but the job was given to Sujatha singh on the basis of seniority (some say Sonia favoured SS).

its not with immediate effect i think.. he will replace the current incumbent after 6 months.
Nope, from the above link:


He met Sushma Swaraj last night:
[tweet]560685554162216961[/tweet]
 

sorcerer

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Better to keep the top positions clear of immediate transformations when we are working on projects that cant afford to have a change of face as it progresses.
 

Free Karma

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Some very interesting details have come out on this:

Why PM Narendra Modi was unhappy with former foreign secretary Sujatha Singh - The Times of India

Over the past six months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is learnt to have been repeatedly unhappy with the MEA and particularly with former foreign secretary Sujatha Singh's leadership, which failed to keep pace with his bigger interests.

Where Sujatha Singh and the PMO diverged was her inability — or unwillingness — to make the necessary course corrections. Early problems cropped up between the Singh-led MEA and the PMO when the BRICS summit declaration put in a paragraph critical of Israel, a country Modi has declared as a priority partner.

This was followed by India voting against Israel at the UNHRC — which was along the lines of the MEA's traditional stance, but very different from the stand of the new government. In fact, an abstention was not even considered, which the PMO objected to. It was, therefore, no surprise that Modi chose to meet Benjamin Netanyahu in New York.

With Japan, too, the view in the PMO was that Singh failed to run with the outcomes of Modi's visit there in September. As a result, things are said to have slowed down in a relationship into which Modi has deeply invested.

On Denmark, the PM is said to have suffered a personal slight. The Gujarat government had invited the Danish PM to Vibrant Gujarat. But the visit failed to materialize because the MEA refused to budge from its stand that no high-level contact was allowed unless they resolved the issue of Kim Davy, despite the fact that Modi had a personal interest in the Danes. The Danish PM did not come, and serious wrinkles have appeared in that bilateral relationship.

Singh and foreign minister Sushma Swaraj built a working relationship, but since neither of them had any meaningful relationship with the PMO, the MEA began to be bypassed in major decisions on foreign policy. It wasn't long before the foreign minister-foreign secretary relationship also began to turn tepid.

Swaraj tweeted on Thursday that it was the government's decision appoint Jaishankar, who had to be brought in before he retired on January 31. "Then I spoke to Ms Sujatha Singh personally," she tweeted, indicating that she was very much a party to the replacement decision.

Modi's keenness in India's relationship with the US brought ambassador Jaishankar in Washington into a key role of taking bilateral ties forward. By the time Modi invited Obama for R-Day, Singh had been told she would be replaced. Jaishankar is rated very well both by the Modi government and in MEA, and was also able to grasp the core of Modi's foreign policy. Sources said Singh was offered a UPSC post for an honourable exit, but she declined the offer.
I can understand Modi being angry with the lack of action over Japan and Israel. But Denmark? Why so much importance. and break the previous stance over Kim Davy.....or is it just saying we'd rather get investments (?) and take care of it at a later date?

Here is the Farewell letter from Sujata singh:
Full text of ex-foreign secretary Sujatha Singh's farewell letter - The Economic Times

Dear Colleagues,

I have today sought early retirement from Government service.[/b]

My life as a civil servant in the service of India, both overseas and in India, has given me the opportunity to serve not just the Government of India but the people of India and the idea of India that we have had the honour to represent as professional diplomats - the largest democracy in the world, teeming, vibrant, resonant with all its diversities, cultures, languages and civilisational splendour. A democracy that demands patience in untangling the mysterious ways it works, a system that infuriates more often than not, but a system that surprisingly also delivers, more often than not, because of the people who hold it up, the people who make it run.

I believe that civil servants are among the millions of people who work towards enabling India to deliver, who work towards enabling India to realise its enormous potential, who assist fellow Indians in realising their aspirations. Not all civil servants perhaps, but some of us certainly, and among them I count the Indian Foreign Service as amongst, if not the best in terms of professionalism, in terms of competence and in terms of sheer dedication and world view. Like any other civil service or indeed profession, we have our shortcomings. But what we do possess in the Ministry of External Affairs are great institutional strengths, strengths that we have consistently built on over the years and that keep MEA in the vanguard of change in GOL It is this inherent strength that has enabled MEA to 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.

I believe that the Foreign Secretary, as Head of this Service and the senior-most civil servant in the Ministry, plays a critical role in being the main point of interface with the political leadership, in giving objective advice that takes into account India's foreign policy interests over all connected and interlinked aspects.

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.

Colleagues, it has been my privilege to have served over 38 years in the Indian Foreign Service, and a particular privilege to have served as Foreign Secretary over the past 18 months, leading the remarkable women and men who work selflessly, at all levels of MEA,to advance India's interests abroad. I will continue to cherish this sense of pride for the rest of my life.

Best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

(Sujatha Singh)
 

anoop_mig25

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I think she was appointed by first family then

there was news that MMS really wanted to appoint S Jaishankar as Foreign Secretary rather then Sujatha Singh but he was not favourite of family so his tenure was extended by MMS and moved to USA as Ambassador.

I think it is proper to remove in this way

New gov has removed lot of senior officer . this might bring black assh from IAS/IPS/IFS community.

better to have strong insitutue which can produce capable officer then have strong officer
 

Compersion

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she was given the opportunity to speak and no one (over) reacted. it is time to move on and focus on good stuff.

if she talks again (and continues) it needs to be pointed out factually. she knew it was coming. the reasons were made to also coordinate and justify positional parameters. she understands the system is far more important compare to individuals.
 

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