India’s External Affairs Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar on Monday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, 25 days after assuming charge. Jaishankar, a career diplomat and a former Foreign Secretary, joined the saffron party in the presence of its newly-appointed Working President Jagat Prakash Nadda. Jaishankar was inducted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his government as External Affairs Minister on May 30.
The BJP is likely to field Jaishankar from Modi’s home state Gujarat as a candidate to be a lawmaker of the Rajya Sabha whose members are chosen by an electoral college comprising legislators in state assemblies. He has to be a Member of Parliament within six months of his swearing in. Jaishankar, son of one of India’s foremost strategic thinkers, K Subrahmanyam, is considered to be very close to Modi and was part of a troika with Modi and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval who played a major role in shaping foreign policy in the early years of the last Modi government from 2014.
Jaishankar’s work as the Indian Ambassador to the US catapulted him to the position of Foreign Secretary then. An IFS officer of the 1977 batch, he has widespread expertise in nuclear diplomacy and relations with the US and China. He played an important role in negotiating the 2008 India-US civil nuclear deal. Jaishankar is a graduate of St Stephen’s College and has a master’s degree in political science and an MPhil and PhD in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
