Jaishankar, who elbowed out Sujatha, replaces Sushma

The officials at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) were a bit relaxed on January 28, 2015, as United States President Barack Obama returned to Washington D C the previous day after attending the Republic Day ceremony in New Delhi.

Most had no idea about what was to follow. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh late in the evening and told her that she must step aside, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was keen to replace her with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar – New Delhi's envoy to Washington D C – as the top diplomat of India.

Singh resigned that night, although in just eight more months, her tenure would have come to its end. Jaishankar, who had come to New Delhi for the American President's visit, took over as Foreign Secretary next morning.

Four years and four months later, Swaraj herself has been replaced by Jaishankar. The 64-year-old, who had retired as the Foreign Secretary in January 2018, returned to the South Block on Friday and took over as the new External Affairs Minister.

Jaishankar, an officer of Indian Foreign Service of 1977 batch, is the second career diplomat who has been appointed as the External Affairs Minister of India. K Natwar Singh, who was External Affairs Minister from 2004 to 2005, was the first.

When the new External Affairs Minister reached South Block on Friday, he was welcomed by Vijay Gokhale, who had succeeded him as Foreign Secretary.

Jaishankar is the son of Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyam, who had not only served at the top echelons of the government as an Indian Administrative Service officer, but had also been a strategic affairs analyst who had helped shape the security and nuclear policy of the nation.

He has two brothers – Sanjay, an eminent historian, and Vijay, an IAS officer, who retired as Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development in September 2013.

Jaishankar went to Air Force Central School in New Delhi in his childhood and graduated from St. Stephen’s College in the national capital itself. He completed his masters in Political Science. He also has an M.Phil and a PhD in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

While his father was a staunch advocate of India-US nuclear deal, Jaishankar, who was Joint Secretary (Americas) at the MEA from 2004 to 2007, played a key role in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Government making it a reality in 2008.

Though Manmohan Singh is understood to be keen to reward him with an out-of-turn promotion to the office of Foreign Secretary, he had to drop the plan as Sujatha Singh, who joined the IFS in 1976, and a few other serving MEA officials senior to Jaishankar, threatened to resign in protest.

Modi finally appointed Jaishankar to the top office of the MEA – just days before he would have retired from the Indian Foreign Service. His two year term in the office of Foreign Secretary was extended in January 2017 for another year.