India’s Ambassador to the US Subrahmanyam Jaishankar may become a foreign policy adviser

NEW DELHI: Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s Ambassador to USA, could find a place in the PMO as a foreign policy adviser after US President Barack Obama’s India visit in January 2015.

Jaishankar retires from IFS in a month’s time, but he can continue as the US ambassador until December 2015. As per sources in the government, he would be called back from Washington DC after January. Once he retires from service, there would be no technical hurdles for Jayashankar to accept the job of an adviser.

An advisory role for Jaishankar in the PMO was considered when Team Modi was being set up in June. However, a combination of political and technical factors did not facilitate that appointment, sources said. Jaishankar not only played a key role in putting back Indo-US bilateral relations on track but was also instrumental in PM’s successful visit to the US where he even had a walk around the Martin Luther King memorial along with Obama — a rare departure from usual US diplomatic privileges extended to a visiting dignitary.

Sources said he played a key role in making White House agree to accept the invite to Obama to be the chief guest for Republic Day celebrations. Jaishankar, son of renowned strategic affairs expert K Subrahmanyam, had played a key role in the initial days of Indo-US negotiations for civil nuclear deal as Joint Secretary (Americas) in the MEA.