Ex-Foreign Secy surprise pick

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, May 30

All through his diplomatic career, which culminated as Foreign Secretary, tough political assignments have always followed 64-year-old Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

Jaishankar is believed to have caught Narendra Modi’s eye during his visit as Gujarat CM to China in 2011 when he was the Indian envoy.

Once his initial days as a junior diplomat were over, Jaishankar immediately found himself at the deep end of the diplomatic vortex. Posted in Sri Lanka as First Secretary, he was deputed as political adviser to the Indian Peacekeeping Force, which was battling the Tamil militants.

Though neither party emerged with honours intact, Jaishankar’s hand on the tiller kept the situation from going bad to worse. His next posting in East Europe coincided with the crumbling of the Soviet empire and on return to the headquarters, he handled the aftermath of the change in regimes in East Europe.

After a brief tenure as Press Secretary to the President, Jaishankar again found himself fighting diplomatic fires in the aftermath of India’s second nuclear test as Deputy Chief of Mission in Tokyo.

Jaishankar was in charge of the Americas desk when India negotiated the Indo-US nuclear agreement that led to a decisive turn in Indo-US ties. His next posting in Singapore coincided with the city-state transforming its defence ties that included permission to its armed forces to practise in India.

As the longest-serving Indian envoy to China, Jaishankar turned around the economic relationship and also defused a Chinese intrusion into India. A brief spell as Ambassador to the US had him handling the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade and ensuring her safe exit from the country. His three-year tenure as Foreign Secretary was during the first term of Modi as PM.

Though he joined Tata Sons on retirement, Jaishankar remained in the decision-making loop and was conferred the Padma Shri last year. He is the son of K Subrahmanyam, India’s tallest strategic thinker and the architect of its nuclear posture. Married to a former Japanese national, Jaishankar’s son Dhruva Jaishankar is with the prominent US think-tank Brookings. One of his brothers S Vijay Kumar was former Rural Development Secretary and another brother Sanjay Subrahmanyam is a historian.