As Subramanyam Jaishankar stood beside the Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and took oath as the Union Minister in the new Modi 2.0 government at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, a history was created. The recipient of Padma Shri in 2019 is the first former foreign secretary to have been inducted in the cabinet and will handle the External Affairs Ministry previously headed by Sushma Swaraj.
First Ex-IFS Officer To Be Inducted In Cabinet
Although it is not the first time that the Indian Foreign Service officials have become President, Vice-President or held any other high-profile offices in the Indian Government, Jaishankar is the first ex-IFS officer who is now a part of the ruling government without actually being a member of the ruling party.
While praising S. Jaishankar, the former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh said, “He is an outstanding diplomat and will perform really well.” Natwar Singh was also a secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) prior to becoming a Union Minister in 2004.
Illustrious Career Graph Of S.Jaishankar
His career has seen lots of peaks most of which directly or indirectly always helped to promote the overall welfare of India. Here is a complete journey of S. Jaishankar in nutshell:
He was born to K.Subrahmanyam, the strategic affairs commentator and Sulochana. Jaishankar completed his education from JNU and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1977. Prior to that, he worked as a journalist for a short period.
He served at multiple locations including Sri Lanka and his long career spanning over decades give him great experience of handling power.
The expert in multiple languages including Tamil, Hindi, Russian and Mandarin, his longest ambassadorial tenure was in China during the era of UPA government followed by a brief tenure in the US.
S Jaishankar, former foreign secretary today became a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers
Read here https://t.co/8V25PNfgQc#ModiSwearingIn pic.twitter.com/FXjQl9MvKl
— NDTV (@ndtv) May 30, 2019
After working as an Indian envoy in Washington DC, Mr. Jaishankar was inducted as the Foreign Secretary in January 2015. He is said to have played a crucial role in ensuring the success of PM Narendra Modi’s first visit to the US.
As a Foreign Secretary, he contributed on a large scale to the relief operations in Nepal after April 2015’s devastating earthquake.
He boosted the campaign of India for getting a seat at the Nuclear Suppliers Group as well as other export control regimes.
Our control room people confirmed that every call and every mail is being replied to: S Jaishankar #NepalEarthquake pic.twitter.com/lW3A3i31p7
— ANI (@ANI) April 26, 2015
Jaishankar is known for his extensive work and experience with China in the policy circles. When he was the Ambassador in Beijing Jaishankar handled the problem of stapled visa from Arunachal Pradesh for Indian citizens. He also was at the helm of the response to the 73-day Doklam standoff as Foreign Secretary in 2017.
His support towards broadening of the maritime diplomacy of India by bringing the Asia-Pacific region closer was also very much appreciated. The efforts included Quad dialogue between India, the US, Australia, and Japan in 2017 when Jaishankar was Foreign Secretary.
He retired in 2018 and joined Tata Sons as President of Global Private Affairs. He has a vast experience as a diplomat and was India’s Ambassador to China, the USA, Singapore, and the Czech Republic.
His experience has helped India to gain many high-profile diplomatic wins including the infamous Devyani Khobragade case, the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement in 2006, and Tarapur Nuclear fuel issue.
