NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s era in South Block may just be 10 days old, speculation about imminent changes in the ‘senior management’ of the Ministry of External Affairs has been gathering momentum.
The government finally decided on its first ambassadorial appointments this week, eight months after taking charge. Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the green signal to the names of Navdeep Suri and Vishnu Prakash as the Indian ambassadors to Australia and Canada, respectively. Jaishankar took over as the new foreign secretary on January 29, replacing Sujatha Singh whose tenure was curtailed by six months.
These two posts required urgent attention as they were vacant, with Ottawa being empty for the past two months after former Naval chief Nirmal Verma’s term came to an end in November. Canada was also expedited as PM is expected to visit the country in April. Prakash, a 1981-batch IFS officer, is currently ambassador to South Korea and a former official spokesperson.
The position in Australia also required to be filled up, as Biren Nanda retired last month. Australia has emerged as one of the priority relations for Modi, with Tony Abbott being one of the few global leaders who has been the recipient of a buddy hug. An IFS officer of the 1983 batch, Suri will be moving to Canberra from Cairo. He recently earned praise, after PM’s Twitter account posted a link to yoga lessons being imparted to Cairians by the Indian cultural centre.
Sources said another round of files, with some three-four names will be moved “within this month”. These would certainly include the successor to Jaishankar in Washington, for whom several names are doing the rounds.
While Arun Kumar Singh, ambassador to France, is frequently mentioned, officials did not discount that the US could see a political appointment. Others, however, argued that Jaishankar had reportedly told senior officers last week that foreign policy should be run by professionals. If Singh moves from Paris, Mohan Kumar, who had earlier been deputy chief of mission there, may move in after over four years in Bahrain. Meanwhile, there is a heightened sense of apprehension in South Block and Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan, with the grapevine being filled with talks of reshuffle of joint secretaries after the heads of missions.
If Jaishankar takes this step, it would be unusual, as previous changes in the helm of foreign office have not seen any significant out-of-turn reshuffle of the heads of divisions. However, Sujatha did see splits and mergers in some of the big divisions. Sources said there is especially intense discussion about changes in the divisions directly supervised by the foreign secretary. There are expectations that Jaishankar may bring in new faces from Beijing and Washington, two places that he had been posted as ambassadors. At the same time, it was also pointed out that both the capitals have only a couple of joint secretary-level officers.
Jaishankar has handpicked his personal assistant in Beijing, Shilpak Ambule (2002 IFS) as director in his office. But there is talk about a joint secretary being attached to the FS office, which would be a first. Meanwhile, the policy planning and research division, which has always relegated to the sidelines, may get some love—with new FS apparently having plans for its revival. he FS is, of course, the first among peers, with officials scrutinising if any of the secretaries will be moving out of Delhi. There is talk that one of the secretaries, who would still have some months of service left after Jaishankar’s two-year term ends, has been asked to lead an important Indian mission.