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FORE IGN SECRETARY
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M IN IS TR Y O F E XT ERN AL A FF AIR S
NEW DELHI 110011
Phone: 2301 2318 Fax: 2301 6781
E mail: dirfs@mea gov in
No 1842 FS 2015
28 January 2015
I have today sought early retirement from Government service.
2. My life as a civil servant in the service of India, both overseas and in
India, has given me the opportunity to serve not just the Government of India
but the people of India and the idea of India that we have had the honour to
represent as professional diplomats - the largest democracy in the world,
teeming, vibrant, resonant with all its diversities, cultures, languages and
civilisational splendour. A democracy that demands patience in untangling the
mysterious ways it works, a system that infuriates more often than not, but a
system that surprisingly also delivers, more often than not, because of the
people who hold it up, the people who make it run.
3. I believe that civil servants are among the millions of people who work
towards enabling India to deliver, who work towards enabling India to realise
its enormous potential, who assist fellow Indians in realising their aspirations.
Not all civil servants perhaps, but some of us certainly, and among them I
count the Indian Foreign Service as amongst, if not the best in terms of
professionalism, in terms of competence and in terms of sheer dedication and
world view. Like any other civil service or indeed profession, we have our
shortcomings. But what we do possess in the Ministry of External Affairs are
great institutional strengths, strengths that we have consistently built on over
the years and that keep MEA in the vanguard of change in GOL is this
inherent strength that has enabled MEAto rise consistently to the challenges
presented to us - to prepare, to organise, to deliver and to follow up, on what
has perhaps been the most charged, and indeed the most successful, calendar
of any new Government s post election foreign engagements.
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4. I believe that the Foreign Secretary, as Head of this Service and the
senior-most civil servant in the Ministry, plays a critical role in being the main
point of interface with the political leadership, in giving objective advice that
takes into account India s foreign policy interests over all connected and
interlinked aspects.
5. While individuals can and do playa critical role in building institutions, I
believe that no individual is larger than the institution.
can never be about
individuals. has to be about institutions and how institutions interface and
coordinate with each other.
6. Colleagues, it has been my privilege to have served over 38 years in the
Indian Foreign Service, and a particular privilege to have served as Foreign
Secretary over the past 18 months, leading the remarkable women and men
who work selflessly, at all levels of MEA,to advance India s interests abroad. I
will continue to cherish this sense of pride for the rest of my life.
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Yours sincerely,
Sujatha Singh)
ll Officers Staff of ME