S Jaishankar becomes the new foreign secretary, rise a controversy
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is a 1977-batch IFS officer. Sujatha Singh was not present when Jaishankar took charge at the South Block office. Jaishankar will have a two-year tenure as per the rules.
Dr. Jaishankar, 60, is the son of K Subrahmanyam, who was one of India's leading strategic analysts. He was a key member of the team that negotiated the nuclear deal with the US in 2008, when Dr Manmohan Singh of the Congress was Prime Minister.
As he took over, the new foreign secretary said, "I am really honoured to have been given this big responsibility. My priorities are the same as the government's priorities." The Narendra Modi government announced Dr Jaishankar's appointment after a meeting of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, chaired by the PM, last evening.
While, appointment of Jaishankar snowballed into a controversy Thursday with the Congress calling the timing of his appointment questionable. NDTV quoted senior Congress leader Manish Tewari as saying,"If the PM was unhappy with the foreign secretary, why didn't he ask her to go nine months ago. The timing is questionable. Why wait for the presidential visit to end? Did something happen during the visit? The PM needs to explain."
