#RegionalJournal: Untold stories from the region

Big changes in IFS postings

You heard it here first. Big changes in diplomat postings in the Ministry of External Affairs are in the offing. Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra is moving to the US as India’s Ambassador. The post has been vacant since Taranjit Sandhu returned in February to fight the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat as the BJP candidate, which he lost to the Congress’ GS Aujla. In Kwatra’s place will come Vikram Misri, currently Deputy National Security Adviser. Misri is one of India’s finest diplomats with enormous experience — he has served in Pakistan as political counsellor, as PS to former PM IK Gujral, and as India’s Ambassador to China (during his tenure, Chinese troops first came to sit on the LAC in April 2020). In Misri’s place, the new Deputy NSA is likely to be Jawed Ashraf, currently Ambassador in France. Ashraf has served in Modi’s powerful PMO in the first term, where he wrote many of his speeches, and was part of the core group that pushed India’s admission into the Nuclear Suppliers Group. India will also soon have a new Permanent Representative (PR) to the UN in New York, a key assignment, with India’s Ambassador to Germany P Harish moving there.

This Haryana Lal is different

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s grandson Chaitanya Bishnoi has decided to forgo politics for cricket in the US. The Los Angeles Knight Riders, a T-20 cricket team, declared, “Excited to have you on board, Chaitanya!” With father Kuldeep Bishnoi and brother Bhavya Bishnoi, BJP MLA from pocket borough Adampur Assembly, carrying forward Bhajan Lal’s political legacy at home, Chaitanya (30) decided he would do it differently. He started playing cricket during his college days in Durham University, represented Haryana in domestic cricket and has been part of the Chennai Super Kings team.

Sarabjeet’s new Mahindra XUV

Newly elected MP from Faridkot Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa (and the son of Beant Singh, one of the two assassins of PM Indira Gandhi) is a politician with limited means. He has contested four elections earlier and lost them all. His latest election affidavit stated he and his wife had cash worth Rs 2 lakh each, plus Rs 8,400 together in their four bank accounts. Barely days after the election result, Sarabjeet has become the owner of a brand-new Mahindra XUV worth several lakhs. “It is a gift from the sangat, the community,” Daler Singh Doad, his personal assistant, is telling journalists.

Contributed by Jyoti Malhotra, Deepender Deswal & Jupinderjit Singh

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