Search begins for new foreign secy

Mathai term ends July-end,decision in fortnight,shortlist of 6 candidates on PMs table

Amidst heightened speculation,the UPA government has started its search for a new foreign secretary as incumbent Ranjai Mathai completes his two-year stint in July end. It is learnt that a shortlist of six candidates has been moved. It includes Sujatha Singh and Jaimini Bhagwati from the 1976 IFS batch and Sudhir Vyas and S Jaishankar from the 1977 batch.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take the final call after factoring in their seniority and track record. However,the time window for the decision is narrow as the External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid is travelling to Norway next week and then to Iraq. This will be followed by US Secretary of State John Kerry visiting India on June 24. The new foreign secretary has to join the South Block early July for a month of smooth transition.

Sujatha Singh,ambassador to Germany,is the seniormost officer in the list. Daughter of former governor and IB director,T V Rajeswar,Singh is well-versed in German. She was posted in Australia in 2009-10 during violent attacks on Indian students. She has served in Italy,Thailand and France and was joint secretary (west Europe) in 2004-07. She retires in July 2014.

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Jaimini Bhagwati,Indian envoy to the UK,has worked with the World Bank twice and was joint secretary in the Finance Ministry. An expert in Indian and international finance,he was handpicked as envoy to EU headquarters Brussels in 2008. A Spanish and French speaker,he has a masters degree in finance from MIT and a PhD from Tufts University,USA. In 2008,he was in the race for SEBI chiefs post. He has worked in the US,Cuba and Spain and was joint secretary (Eurasia) in 2005-08. He retires in September,2013.

Sudhir Vyas,secretary (west),was an envoy to Germany and Bhutan. He was charge daffairs in Islamabad in 2003 and was expelled by the Pakistan government in a tit-for-tat response to Indias expulsion of Jalil Abbas Jilani for separatist links. Vyas can speak Urdu,Arabic and French and has worked in the US,UAE,Egypt,Algeria,Nepal. He too retires in September,2013.

S Jaishankar,envoy to China,is the son of strategic affairs expert,K Subrahmanyam. He played a key role in the Indo-US N-deal and in resolving the recent border standoff with China. He has served in Prague,Tokyo,Budapest,Colombo,Washington DC and Moscow and was the press secretary to President Shankar Dayal Sharma. He retires in January 2015.

In the recent past,there has been no set rule for choosing a foreign secretary. Though the PM stuck to the seniority principle in the case of Mathai and his predecessor Nirupama Rao,in the case of Shivshankar Menon and Shyam Saran,he gave priority to their track record.

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The PM is likely to take a decision over the next fortnight. While there are talks that the transition wont be smooth if seniors are bypassed,the government is planning to accommodate some of them in different constitutional and statutory bodies.