Vacancies dog Indian missions in key world capitals

January 12, 2015 12:18

'Indian envoys from all over the world have been asked to fly home for a conference of heads of missions in the second week of February. This will be the first such meeting since 2012 and the vast majority of its participants will be meeting Modi for the first time,' writes K P Nayar, arguably the finest Indian reporter on diplomacy, in The Telegraph, Kolkata.

But that's not the story.

It's that in the eight months in office, the Narendra Modi government has not appointed a single ambassador.

And that's not because there are no capable women/men to man the world's capitals.

'A list of some 15 new ambassadors to be appointed by the Modi government has become a kind of bureaucratic football. It is understood that foreign secretary Sujatha Singh sent this list to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj almost two months ago routinely, anticipating retirements and end of tenures,' writes Nayar. But Sushma, apprehensive that 'Modi may live up to his reputation and want her to justify these appointments by asking searching questions,' has reportedly ask the FS to justify the nominations and make a watertight case for them.

While this exercise is going on, among the mission that are headless are Canada, which Modi may visit in March or April, Syria, and Saudi Arabia where the ambassador is on extension awaiting his replacement.

Apart from these stations, Nayar points out, the tenure of heads of missions at Dhaka, Seoul and Bahrain and at least 30 others are coming to a close. And with a search soon to begin for a new foreign secretary, a further shifting around of some ambassadors is expected.

To come back to the meeting of envoys, senior MEA officials feel that such a gathering would make more sense once all the diplomatic vacancies are filled, as that would also help the new appointees to hit the ground running.

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