One of the important decisions left behind by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was replacement of Shashank, the last foreign secretary to serve his government. 
With a fawning Sonia Gandhi backing him, Manmohan Singh set about interviewing ten of the senior most Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers, a process he also adopted to replace Kamal Pande, who was Vajpayee’s cabinet secretary, even though Pande, unlike Shashank, had tenure left to serve.

For his new foreign secretary, Singh zoned in Shyam Saran, a 1970-batch IFS officer.

This meant overlooking our then ambassador to France, Dilip Lahiri, the ambassador to the European Union in Brussels, PK Singh, the ambassador to the Netherlands, Shyamala B Cowsik, the high commissioner to Sri Lanka, Nirupam Sen, and a secretary in the external affairs ministry, RM Abhyankar.

There wasn’t must of a storm, and if I recall correctly, only Abhyankar had to be eased gracefully to Brussels, just so that he didn’t have to serve under his junior within South Block itself.

The reason such bloodless coups can be undertaken is because nearly two dozen out of India’s 600 corps of IFS officers are already in the pay and rank of secretary. The foreign ssecretary is thus, at best, primus inter pares among them.

This bears repetition. Thanks to the rival Indian Administrative Service (IAS) lobby, the head of the IFS is merely a first among equals among his tribe of top guns, and, sans media hype, at least on strict technical criteria, nothing more than a secretary. The IAS, in comparison, has the earmarked post of cabinet secretary, one rank and scale above secretary/foreign secretary.

There lies the woe of some top IFS officers whose case has been taken up by sections of the media versus S Jaishankar, the Indian envoy to Beijing and their “junior.” The hard fact is that so long as their pay is protected, which it obviously is, none of these two dozen-odd secretary-level officers in the IFS can demand the right to a particular posting. Also, a fact too often overlooked is that not all ambassadors and high commissioners report directly to the foreign secretary. In fact, those “over looked” for foreign secretary certainly don’t! So, indignation over “supersession” is often fuelled by illiterates and gossip mongers.

The Shyam Saran story was repeated when, two years later, he demitted office. This time the PM’s choice was the seventeenth man of the list of serving IFS officers. In came Shiv Shankar Menon leaving behind sixteen others, also in the rank of secretary. Three of them, Rajiv Sikri, his wife Veena, and TCA Rangachari, quit. A fourth officer, Shashi Tripathi, was mollified with a 5-year term as member, Union Public Service Commission. The rest continued!

Putting this in context, ambassador TP Sreenivasan observed, in a column for rediff.com: “Some of the affected officers have had particularly brilliant careers, but they can be deployed for delicate assignments outside the country. An earlier practice of following the pecking order too strictly had landed square pegs in round holes,”

Indeed, now that Ranjan Mathai, the present foreign secretary, is expected to retire on July 31, the easiest option before the PM is to grant Mathai an extension. If that is done, Singh can have continuity just as many throwing their hat in the ring would have to retire in the intervening period. This would also avoid a direct confrontation with 10 Janpath over Sujata Singh, the senior-most secretary-level officer in the IFS who is brilliant, a lady, and the daughter of old-time Congress supporter and governor TV Rajeshwar.

But this would also mean giving out a clear signal that the writ of the prime minister no longer runs even in the selection of his foreign secretary. Since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister, not the external affairs minister, has had the remote control over the ministry of external affairs (MEA). The only exception to this unwritten rule had been when K Natwar Singh asserted his right.

So, here’s my pro bono advice! By giving in to pressures from Sonia Gandhi or the media which thinks the 16 officers are being superseded, let Singh not erode one more tradition even as he watches helplessly while Mamta Banerjee runs her own foreign policy over Bangladesh; Kerala created an entire row with Italy leaving the PM woefully out of the loop; and Narendra Modi flirts with Japan and China, cocking a snook at MEA.

Unless, of course, Mathai is Singh’s original choice. If he isn’t, then push comes to a shove, the PM must assert on his purported choice of S Jaishankar, our man in Beijing (NB: there’s only speculation and the customary sphinx-like silence from the PM on this subject too!).

That said, the option before those higher in the IFS gradation list is purely their own. If they feel they have been slighted, which technically they haven’t been, they can quit. Else, they can simply soldier along and continue doing their good work overseas!

Tail Piece: Is there a “Chinese Charm” working here? KPS Menon, the Indian envoy to Beijing, had packed his bags for retirement, when Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi suddenly dumped AP Venkateswaran and summoned Menon to take charge. Shyam Saran, though he only served as a counselor in Beijing, is a China expert. And Shiv Shankar Menon, who incidentally is KPS’s nephew, was our man in Beijing. Will Jaishankar, son of the Bhishma Pitamah of India’s strategic community, K Subrahmanyam, be next!