Just a couple of days ago, foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai was among the audience as more than one eminent speakar at the book launch of diplomat-turned-politician Shashi Tharoor drew attention to the under-staffing within the prestigious Indian Foreign Service (IFS). On Friday, Mr Mathai sought to correct any apprehensions on this account by stating that a paucity of resources has not stopped the external affairs ministry from “taking some proactive steps”.
The foreign secretary, who was speaking at the launch of the IDSA report titled “India’s neighbourhood: Challenges in the next two decades”, chose not to mince words as he said that “the ministry of external affairs has not been entirely reactive. Nor have we let the acute shortage of resources stop us from taking some proactive steps.”
Stating that the ministry has “stepped up recruitment of personnel into the Indian Foreign Service”, Mr Mathai said that the MEA will be inducting nearly 500 personnel in the next few years to meet its requirements. Countering the criticism of under-staffing and reluctance to recruit from outside, Mr Mathai said, the ministry has increased the in-take from other services and backgrounds to help build in-house expertise in non-traditional areas.
The issue of a grossly under-staffed MEA with approximately 900 officers belonging to the IFS has been grabbing eyeballs, particularly in recent months. It was raised yet again by Mr Tharoor during his book launch who said that he has devoted a chapter in his latest work to this matter. Indeed, Mr Tharoor has been arguing in favour of the induction of non-career diplomats with domain expertise into the service to meet the shortage of IFS personnel and made the same pitch during the book launch too.
He suggested that the MEA identify its needs and recruit mid-career people with the relevant experience and train them. However, he lamented that the “system” instead “chose to merely increase the intake each year”. He added, “so we’re getting more junior officers who need to be trained who’ll take 10 years to acquire the expertise we could’ve got right now...”.