New boss for MEA soon: PM

Arindam Sen Gupta / TNN / Sep 13, 2006, 00:45 IST

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The PM will appoint a "full-time external affairs minister soon on his return on September 18".

ON BOARD PM'S AIRCRAFT: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday announced for the second time in two months that the UPA government would "soon" gain a full-time foreign minister, but uncoupled the appointment of the new boss of MEA with a larger rejig of ministerial portfolios.
Singh admitted he was snowed under work and will appoint a "full-time external affairs minister soon on my return on September 18".
The remark came soon after Congress leadership, it is reliably learnt, could not persuade defence minister Pranab Mukherjee to move to the foreign ministry, prolonging the search for a full-scale foreign minister a slot vacant since the Volcker revelations forced Natwar Singh to quit.
With Mukherjee saying no, PM may have to look at what the grapevine calls the "4 Ks" commerce minister Kamal Nath, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal, Maharashtra governor S M Krishna and Congress veteran and head of the party's foreign cell, Karan Singh.

The urgency in the PM's tone was easy to understand. For, it was in July, that Singh when on his way back from the G-8 Summit in St Petersburg, placed on record his interest in having a new occupant in the foreign office in South Block.
The choice has so far remained elusive, with contending considerations coming into play and preventing a final selection.
Unlike last time, however, when the PM's remark sparked a burst of optimism among aspirants to ministerial positions, Singh this time took care to clarify that the exercise would be limited to the appointment of a foreign minister.
"As of now, I am thinking of only having a foreign minister," the PM said in remarks which can dash the hopes of those on the bench as well the ones optimistic of shift and elevation.

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