The Minister for External Affairs Dr. S Jaishankar has sparked a massive controversy, drawing criticisms from Congress Party for alleging that his father was removed from the post of Union Secretary by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

In a recent podcast with ANI’s Smita Prakash, the Minister for External Affairs Dr. S Jaishankar was seen in a candid mode, talking about various phases of his personal life including his family life, life as a Foreign Secretary and life as a Politician and a Member of Parliament. However, now the Foreign Secretary turned Union Minister is stuck in a massive controversy. In the interview to Smita Prakash, Jaishankar stated that hat his father Dr K Subrahmanyam was removed as Secretary, Defence Production, by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi soon after she came back to power in 1980 and he was superseded during the Rajiv Gandhi period with someone junior to him becoming the Cabinet Secretary.  

He stated “In 1980, he was Secretary, Defence Production. In 1980 when Indira Gandhi was re-elected, he was the first Secretary that she removed. And he was the most knowledgeable person everybody would say on defence”. He further told ANI that his father K Subrahmanyam who was then a Union Secretary was removed from the post because he was a very upright person and maybe that could have caused some problem which I do not know but that could be one of the reasons for his removal from the post.

The minister with his office at the South Block further went on to say that “But the fact was that as a person he saw his own career in bureaucracy, actually kind of stalled. And after that, he never became a Secretary again. He was superseded during the Rajiv Gandhi period for somebody junior to him who became a Cabinet Secretary. It was something he felt…we rarely spoke about it. So he was very, very proud when my elder brother became Secretary.”

As of now, the grand old Congress party has refrained from commenting on Dr. S Jaishankar’s statement regarding the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi but the Congress party was quick to counter him on his statement regarding India-China and the ongoing war. 

About K Subrahmanyam

The External Affairs Minister’s father, K Subrahmanyam, was an IAS officer and one of India’s most reputed strategic thinkers, a towering authority on geopolitics who enjoyed the confidence of a series of Prime Ministers. In his long career as a civil servant and strategic affairs expert, Subrahmanyam was known for, among other things, chairing the Kargil War Review Committee and for his championing of India’s nuclear deterrence policy.

When he passed away in 2011, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Subrahmanyam had made important and lasting contributions to the evolution of India’s defence, security and foreign policies.