An era ends with Syed Akbaruddin no longer MEA's voice, but Vikas Swarup will be no push-over

An era just ended in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) with Syed Akbaruddin demitting the high-profile office of Joint Secretary XP (External Publicity) and spokesperson. Akbaruddin, who passed the baton to Vikas Swarup on 18 April, takes over as Chief Coordinator of India-Africa Forum Summit on 20 April. Both Akbaruddin and Swarup had accompanied Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his three-nation tour. They landed back in New Delhi at 6 am on Saturday and were already reporting to their office less than five hours later. Akbaruddin tweeted earlier in the day:

Last day at work usually provides rare opportunities.
In my case, a selfie with an indulgent PM @narendramodi. pic.twitter.com/4ekxE9vK2w

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) April 18, 2015

Farewell friends.@MEAIndia to be with my colleague Vikas Swarup who, as u can see, is fully in the picture
:-) pic.twitter.com/Tza6oUshh4

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) April 18, 2015

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It must go to the credit of the visionary and workaholic Akbaruddin that he made the job of MEA spokesperson the most important public job in the Government of India. [caption id=“attachment_2202296” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Syed Akbaruddin demitted his office as MEA spokesperson on 18 April.[/caption] Akbaruddin’s exploits in the Narendra Modi administration have assumed all the more importance given the fact that Prime Minister Modi is one person who does not believe much in spokespersons. That is why he has no regular spokesperson in any of his ministries, not even in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Traditionally, the MEA has been the only ministry of the government to have a full-fledged spokesperson that holds regular on-record briefings and off-record background briefings and is always available for answering queries of the media, formally or informally. The post assumed all the more importance ever since Modi took over as the Prime Minister on 26 May last year. The reason: PM Modi is loath to taking recourse to the route of a spokesperson to air his and his government’s views. The magic of Akbaruddin is that he was appointed by the previous UPA government, a known anathema to Modi and his BJP, and yet he not only continued for almost eleven months in the new dispensation but also became a favourite of PM Modi. In fact, Modi wanted him to become the PMO’s spokesperson as he does not have a media advisor. Despite the fact that the position offered to Akbaruddin was something that any bureaucrat (or diplomat) would die for he politely declined the offer. The reason: he has just about six years left for his retirement and till date he has not had a single ambassadorial stint, something that every diplomat aspires to. Moreover, the post of MEA spokesperson is a joint secretary-level post and Akbaruddin is due to become an additional secretary very soon. The post of JS (XP) and MEA spokesperson has incrementally gained stature and importance within the Government of India set up since the Kargil War of 1999. This post has been the Indian government’s show window to the world. At a time when international diplomacy has steadily gained traction across the world, and India has been no exception, Akbaruddin brought a whiff of fresh air when the MEA’s XP Division was just losing momentum and sheen. Akbaruddin took his job far more seriously than his predecessors. There used to be a time when the MEA would hold daily briefings. With the advent of Internet, Email and mobile phone SMSes, the concept of holding daily briefings became outdated and briefings became fewer. Akbaruddin not only saw to it that MEA briefings become a regular feature but also made it a point to impart value addition by organizing background briefings on burning topics regularly for the news-hungry media. However, one questionable practice started by Akbaruddin was to set a cap of one question for every journalist. Many MEA beat old hounds, like this writer, detested this cap of one question per journalist as it robbed the journalists of their art of deriving questions from the answers. From Akbaruddin’s point of view, not an invalid one, he introduced this new ground rule for his briefings as he wanted to give a chance to all journalists to put whatever question he or she wanted, irrespective of his seniority or lack of it and allowing a level-playing field for all. Akbaruddin invariably followed a 7am to 11 pm work schedule every day throughout his tenure and made himself available to journalists to respond to whatever queries they may have, as discussed by this writer here. Akbaruddin has left behind Godzilla-sized shoes for Vikas Swarup to fill in. But I am pretty confident that Vikas Swarup will not only continue the good work Akbaruddin was doing for last 40 months but he may also raise the bar even higher. Having known Vikas Swarup closely for well over a decade and considering his proven talents as a creative writer of international class with his magical debut with his novel Q&A, I can safely predict that Swarup will be no push-over. To use a cricket analogy, Vikas Swarup, the author of Hollywood blockbuster Slumdog Millionaire (based on his novel “Q&A”), is not unmindful of the fact that the just-ended innings of Akbaruddin has seen a monumental score on the board which he has to chase. My prediction: Vikas Swarup’s innings as JS (XP) and MEA spokesperson will be a hell of a chase!