By sacking Sujatha Singh who was about to retire after eight months, government appointed Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s ambassador to the US, as new foreign secretary.
With this move, Singh became the first foreign secretary to be removed in this way after Rajiv Gandhi removed A P Venkateswaran 28 years ago in 1987. The reason behind this decision is said to lie in the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been unimpressed with Singh and her work. The decision was finally taken to remove her just after the Obama’s visit.