After long months of doing nothing, the Ministry of External Affairs has finally got moving on filling vacant ambassadorial positions across the world. Among the changes planned, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty will replace M Ganapathi (1975), Secretary (East) in the MEA.
He not only shares the batch with Secretary (Economic Relations) Sudhir Vyas (1977) but a birthday as well (24 September 1953), but his designation is lower since there are no secretary posts at HQ. Singh belongs to a younger batch (1979), his experience as counsellor, Permanent Mission of India to the UN as well as joint secretary (United Nations political) seems to have tilted the scales in his favour.
Age counts. Indian ambassadors to Canada, Brazil, Myanmar and Italy turn sixty this year, and therefore will be retiring. A political appointee — former naval chief Nirmal Varma, who has been appointed directly by PMO—will soon occupy the high commissioner’s residence in Ottawa. Additional secretary (CPV) B.K. Gupta (1979)’s name had been finalized for Ottawa, but instead the admiral got the captain’s cabin in the end.
B S Prakash, Indian envoy to Brazil, is supposed to retire by end October. Mahesh Kumar Sachdev, currently the Indian ambassador to Nigeria for over four years, was expected to be his replacement. But, sources say Sachdev has been piped to the post at the last minute by his 1978 batchmate and Additional Secretary (administration) Ashok Tomar. The priority, hence, would be to find him a new place, and quickly, since any delay will affect those in the chain behind. Meanwhile, Sachdev was to have been replaced by R. R. Dash, ambassador to Jordan. Thanks to the delay, joint secretary (gulf) A. R. Ghanshyam, slotted for Jordan, is cooling his heels in New Delhi. There are more in the waiting lounge. Y.K. Sinha, after spending more than three years as joint secretary in charge of the stressful Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran desk is getting ready to pack his suitcases for Rome, to replace 1977 batch IFS officer Debabrata Saha who is retiring this year end. Incidentally, Sinha’s name had been doing the rounds for Indian ambassador to Pakistan, but Sharat Sabharwal has been recently given a six-month extension till March 2013. Sources said the current high commissioner to Singapore, TCA Raghavan, has been finalized for the critical Islamabad posting. Raghavan’s seat will be taken over by Vijay Thakur Singh, who is currently in the president’s secretariat. Now that Sabharwal has managed the extension, the heels of both Singh and Raghavan will have stay cooler for some more time.
V.P. Haran has been the Indian envoy in strife-torn Damascus for nearly four years. His name had been in circulation for Dhaka post earlier this year, but sources say he will be off to Bhutan instead– where Pavan Varma has been in residence for a similar period. As per norm, ambassadors spend three-years in their stations, though some have stayed on for four. The three-year period has been completed at a number of major posts, led by the Indian envoy to Beijing S. Jaishankar (1977) who had been posted to China in August 2009. Similarly, Ashok Kanth (1977) in Sri Lanka will close three years in November, while Vijay Gokhale (1981) in Kuala Lumpur could be up for a change after January.
The only official exception to the three year norm is the tenure of the Indian ambassador to Kabul—only two years— since it is not a family posting and faces constant threat from terrorists. The present incumbent, Gautam Mukhopadhyay (1980) completed his two years in July.
Delay has affected not just IFS-level appointments, but also the relatively smaller posts. Uncertainty remains over whether Ajay Sharma, who had been approved by the Indian government and the host country, will take up his post as Indian ambassador to North Korea; formal protests from the IFS (B) associations were registered with MEA as Sharma was from the stenographic cadre. There is also disgruntlement over the proposed Indian envoy to Armenia, for which an MEA official belonging to the interpreter cadre, T. Suresh Babu had been chosen. Babu’s name has still not been announced, but it has raised eyebrows in several quarters.
