Handpicked: Crisis manager S Jaishankar gets Cabinet berth in PM's new team

Jaishankar impressed Modi when the latter met him during his visit to China as Gujarat chief minister in 2012

It caused some heartburn in South Block, which houses the Ministry of External Affairs, when the Narendra Modi government cut short the tenure of Sujatha Singh by seven months in January 2015 and appointed S Jaishankar.

Not that Jaishankar’s abilities or credentials as a diplomat were ever in doubt. The problem was his superseding a couple of senior officers. Jaishankar, for the next three years — from January 2015 to January 2018 — drove the Modi government’s foreign policy. South Block sources would say Jaishankar, like few others in the MEA, understood the PM’s mind.

Jaishankar impressed Modi when the latter met