Sujata Singh slams government for removing her from foreign secretary's post

Rejecting suggestions that she had failed to deliver on the diplomatic front, the recently-ousted foreign secretary Sujata Singh said she had arranged eight bilateral summits and seven multilateral meetings in the past seven months, since prime minister Narendra Modi took over.

"How can this be called under-performance?" she asked. She claimed she had "arranged the most successful calendar of any new government's post-election foreign engagements." Refusing to take the entire share of credit, she said that the ministry of external affairs under her leadership had also arranged six more trips for the prime minister over the next seven months.

Singh was removed with seven months to go before retirement, and replaced by S Jaishankar, the former envoy to the US, just after a successful visit by President Barack Obama. Sources in the PMO say she had been offered the post of head of India's mission to the United Kingdom or to be nominated as a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) or Central Information Commission, where she could have served till 65. But, when she refused, there was no way but to ask her to go.

Singh told a TV channel earlier that in early December she was offered a constitutional position with a three or five-year term. "I declined because of my belief that my responsibility was to the ministry and to my service," she said.

She also said that the nuclear deal was teamwork, and that no single person could take credit for it. The government sources here had attributed the successful conclusion of the deal to the new foreign secretary Jaishankar's negotiations and his right contacts in the US administration. "I was fully involved in guiding the discussions, taking decisions on the line to take, on what to do and what not to do. I coordinated very closely with the Prime Minister's Office," she said.

Officials also say that Singh was removed because Modi had reposed great trust in Jaishankar, who, as Indian Ambassador, had hosted him earlier on three trips to China between 2009 and 2013. Also, singh's tough line against the US following the Devyani Khobragade episode played its part in her removal.

Significantly, new foreign secretary S. Jaishankar will accompany external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to soothe raw nerves in China in the wake of the Indo-US bonhomie. During her trip, which comes within a week of US President Barack Obama's three-day visit here, Swaraj will discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual concern with her Chinese counterpart, the ministry of external affairs has said.

The two sides will also explore the possibility of a visit by Modi later this year. Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mr Wang had visited India last year immediately after the installation of the Modi Government.