Former Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, who was abruptly replaced with India’s US envoy S Jaishankar on Wednesday, sought to showcase her track record during her tenure in the external affairs office to call her removal by the Government unjustified. In an interview to NDTV, Singh hit out at the Government saying, “My reputation is being maligned, my record being trashed. Why was this necessaryIJ”
Defending herself, Singh said she deserved more credit than she has been given for driving the foreign policy over the past eight months. “This Government has charged a great deal on the foreign policy front over the first eight months. None of this would have happened with the PM or the External Affairs Minister operating on their own, in a vacuum. MEA supported the PM and EAM and delivered ably under my leadership. My officers worked overtime because we needed to work faster and quicker. But all that is still not acknowledged,” she said.
On whether she was not kept in the loop on nuclear deal with the US that got resolved last week, Singh made it clear that she was all along involved in the process and had worked on it. She also added that incidents of India-China stand-off at Chumar, nuclear agreement with Australia and investment for green energy from Germany was all under her leadership and her efforts. “I had done best I could as a civil servant should. If I wanted I too could have beaten my drum. But I feel intellectual honesty and integrity is more important than brilliance,” Singh said.
On a question if she was sounded about this decision, Singh acknowledged that she was offered an exit by the Modi Government in December last year and asked to take a Constitutional post which she refused. “I declined because of my belief that my responsibility was to the Ministry and to my service. I want an honourable exit. I don’t mean a tenure as an Ambassador or a tenure in the UPSC. I mean an exit which is in keeping with what I have been as an individual, what I have been as an officer, as a Foreign Secretary,” she said.
However, about her sacking she was told hours before the Government was to notify new FS’ appointment. Singh said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called her around 2 pm and said she had “not so good news” for her. “So I sent a letter requesting for an early retirement. The letter was sent at 7 pm and the notice came out a couple of hours later,” she explained. “Why has it become so low and dirtyIJ” she questioned. She said that she wanted to set the record straight as she believed that a campaign on social media was “being manipulated and deliberately driven.”
