New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday cleared Sujata Singh's name for the Foreign Secretary's post. Sujata Singh, currently Indian ambassador to Germany, is the senior-most officer in the Indian Foreign Service and will succeed Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai who retires on July 31.
Sujata Singh, a 1976 batch officer, will be the third woman to head the country's foreign office, after Chokila Iyer and Nirupama Rao. Singh's husband Sanjay Singh was also in the foreign service and retired recently as Secretary (East). Sujata Singh is the daughter of TV Rajeshwar, a former governor and Intelligence Bureau chief.
The other contenders for the coveted job were S Jaishankar, India's ambassador to China, Jaimini Bhagwati, Indian High Commissioner to Britain, Sudhir Vyas, Secretary (West) and Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External affairs.
Singh's appointment has put an end to speculation that Jaishankar, who is junior to her, Vyas and Chakravarty, will get the top job. In going for Singh the government has indicated that it does not want to rock the boat of the foreign service where discontent had been building up on reports that Jaishankar, who had helped defuse the boundary crisis with China, might be the chosen one. Jaishankar is the son of late K Subrahmanyam, the eminent strategic policy analyst.
Khurshid is believed to have indicated that he does not want "dissonance" to creep into the service by going for a person who would be chosen over the heads of several others in the queue for the top diplomat's job, according to informed sources who spoke to IANS.
The government had to face discontent earlier when it chose Shivshankar Menon as foreign secretary in October 2006 over the heads of 15 IFS officers. It had triggered a minor revolt with then Secretary (East) Rajiv Sikri submitting his resignation and two envoys - TCA Rangachari, ambassador to France, and Veena Sikri, the wife of Rajiv Sikri and then High Commissioner to Bangladesh - putting in their papers as well. Rangachari was next in seniority to then outgoing Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.
After Menon retired as foreign secretary in July 2009, the government chose the next two foreign secretaries, Nirupama Rao and then Ranjan Mathai, on the basis of seniority. There were fears that if the government had gone in for Jaishankar it would have triggered a 2006-like situation, leading to senior diplomats, who were much-feted for their work, putting in their papers, a situation the government liked to avoid in a politically surcharged year leading up to the General elections. The tenure of a foreign secretary is two years.
(With Additional Information From IANS)
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