New Delhi: The sudden removal of Sujatha Singh from the post of Foreign Secretary has grabbed many eyeballs.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, a 1977-batch IFS officer would have been foreign secretary in 2013 as he was a personal choice of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
However, Manmohan could not have his way as Sonia Gandhi had the last word with Sujatha Singh's appointment whose tenure was abruptly "curtailed" late on Wednesday night.
Sujatha Singh was not present when Jaishankar took charge at the South Block office.
A copy of the government letter ordering the removal of Sujatha Singh as foreign secretary and appointing S Jaishankar in her place was released.
The newly elected Foreign Secretary described his new position as an "honour and a big responsibility"."Government's priorities are my priorities," said Jaishankar.
A day after Barack Obama flew out of India, the Modi government on late Wednesday evening announced the abrupt curtailment of tenure of foreign secretary Sujatha Singh with immediate effect just before eight months when she was due to retire.
Before appointing as Foreign Secretary the 60-year-old diplomat was India's Ambassador to the US. He had also been posted as ambassador to China, Singapore and Czech Republic. He will have two year tenure as per rules.
Following the extension, Dr Jaishankar is due to retire in December 2016.
