New Delhi
11 September 2006
A major reshuffle in the Ministry of External Affairs is expected after
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives home from his two-nation nine-day tour to
Brazil and Cuba on September 18.
Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said some or all of secretary-rank officials
posted to the Headquarters and ambassadors who have been superseded by Foreign
Secretary-designate Shiv Shankar Menon will have to be rehabilitated suitably before he
(Menon) takes over on October 1.
That is not all the changes the Ministry will have to contend with. Appointing a new
envoy to succeed Mr Menon in Islamabad will also trigger off a chain reaction with a few
ambassadors posted to the countries in India's immediate neighbourhood certain to be
shifted to more challenging assignments.
The exercise has been made complicated by the fact that prime postings have over the
years come to be reserved for political appointees, thus blocking the chances of senior
diplomats to be relocated or accommodated at Indian missions abroad. London,
Washington and Moscow are a case in point.
The sources said the appointment and subsequent extension of the tenures of Mr Ronen
Sen in Washington, Mr Kamlesh Sharma in London and Mr Kanwal Sibal in Moscow has
narrowed the scope of manouevrability for the government and rendered the possibility
of reassigning the disgruntled officials that much more difficult.
Among the IFS officers Menon superseded are Secretary (West) Shashi U Tripathi,
Secretary (East) Rajiv Sikri and and Secretary (Economic Relations) Rinzing Wangdi
from the 1970 batch of IFS. Others senior to Menon are TCA Rangachari, Atish Sinha, PS
Haer and Arun Kumar besides five other officers from the 1971 batch -- Veena Sikri (Mr
Rajiv Sikri's wife), SS Mukherjee, Navrekha Sharma, Amitabh Tripathi and Parthasarathy
Ray.
The 57-year-old Shiv Shankar Menon is from the 1972 batch of IFS. He is presently
India's High Commissioner to Pakistan. He will have a tenure of about three years as
Foreign Secretary. Prior to his posting to Islamabad three years ago, Menon was the
envoy to China. He has also served in Japan, Israel, Austria and Sri Lanka.
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