“Indira Gandhi Removed My Father As Union Secretary”: S Jaishankar

Observing that he comes from a family of bureaucrats and that his election to the position of union minister in 2019 came as a complete surprise, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said today that his father, Dr. K. Subrahmanyam, was replaced as Secretary, Defence Production, by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi shortly after she regained power in 1980, and he was replaced again as Cabinet Secretary during the Rajiv Gandhi era by someone younger than him.

Mr. Jaishankar discussed his transition from the foreign service to politics in an interview with ANI, saying that he had always hoped to be the top officer and get to the position of Foreign Secretary.

From January 2015 until January 2018, Mr. Jaishankar held the office of Foreign Secretary. Before, he held important diplomatic positions, including those in China and the United States. One of India’s most well-known national security strategists is his father, K Subrahmanyam, who passed away in 2011.

Reflecting on the phone call from the Prime Minister inviting him to be part of the 2019 Narendra Modi-led cabinet, Mr Jaishankar said that it did come as a surprise. “It had not crossed my mind, I don’t think it had crossed the mind of anybody else in my circle,” he said referring to his induction in the union cabinet.

Mr Jaishankar, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1977, said he looks “very carefully at what people are doing both in my party and other parties”. He is a BJP member in Rajya Sabha from Gujarat.

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