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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.

~~ tvi dvd

Yours sincerely,

Sujatha Singh)

ll Officers Staff of ME