One would think that the Foreign Secretary of the time, Sujatha Singh, ideally would been in a position to give the External Affairs Ministry’s side of the Modi-Swaraj controversy. Singh, however, told The Indian Express
I knew nothing about this… Zero… I have nothing more to say.
-Sujatha Singh, Former Foreign Secretary
While there is a heated discourse about the morality and propriety of Sushma Swaraj’s actions, questions have also been raised over protocol. How can a top official in the ministry not be consulted in a case pertaining to emergency travel documents of an ED accused?
What is also interesting is that Swaraj did not consult Singh despite the fact that she was primarily in-charge of the United Kingdom, among other nations. So, did the foreign minister go out of her way, not just to help a scam accused with travel documents but also to keep her own senior officials in the ministry out of the loop?
Singh, remember was unceremoniously sacked by the Modi government five months before her term was to end because she didn’t toe the government line on a whole host of foreign policy issues.