Stories 'planted' in media to tarnish my reputation, says Sujatha Singh

NEW DELHI: Sujatha Singh, who was removed as foreign secretary on Wednesday, has hit out at the government saying, "My reputation is being maligned, my record being trashed. Why was this necessary?" In her first media interaction after she was replaced by S Jaishankar six months before her retirement, the former envoy to the US, Singh on Friday told news channel NDTV that she wanted to set the record straight as she believed that a campaign on social media "is being manipulated and deliberately driven".

"Why has it become so low and dirty?" she said. The former foreign secretary admitted that she was offered an exit route last year, confirming speculations that have been doing rounds for one month.

"I was sounded out in December as to whether I would be interested in a three or five-year constitutional position. I declined because of my belief that my responsibility was to the ministry and to my service," said Singh, a 1976-batch IFS who had served as High Commissioner to Australia and Ambassador in Germany before being made foreign secretary in August 2013.

"I want an honourable exit," she said. "I do not mean a tenure as Ambassador or a tenure in UPSC. I mean an exit, which is in keeping with what I have been as an individual, what I have been as an officer, as a foreign secretary." Singh said she deserved more credit than she had been given for driving foreign policy in recent times.

She appeared to take an indirect dig at her successor when she said, "The most important quality to me is intellectual honesty and integrity any day especially over intellectual brilliance."