India's new foreign minister S Jaishankar starts work in 'Sushma Swaraj style'

India's former External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj was hugely admired for her work of helping out Indians stranded abroad. India's newly appointed Minister of External Affairs, Dr S Jaishankar has large shoes to fill in.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Source: AAP Image/AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Sushma Swaraj's last tweet as the foreign minister was to help an Indian family who lost their documents in Spain.

In her May 26 tweet, She directed the Indian mission in Spain to help the family in distress.

This is how Sushma Swaraj worked during her full tenure.

People contacted her on twitter, and she would direct her officials to help the needy.

One of the most important members of the Indian government solving individuals' problem was unprecedented.

Ms Swaraj had earned a title 'Didi' for her affectionate response.

Sushma Swaraj (File pic)
Sushma Swaraj, India's former External Affairs Minister Source: Getty Image/ Sergei Bobylev / Contributor

Ms Swaraj set the bar high as she became one of the most followed foreign ministers in the world with 12.8 million Twitter followers.

The newly appointed Minister of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar acknowledged this in his first tweet. He said, 'Honoured to be given this responsibility. Proud to follow on the footsteps of Sushma Swaraj.'

On his first day at work, S Jaishankar appeared to follow Ms Swaraj's style when he followed up the case of an Indian man stuck in Saudi Arabia with the local embassy officials.

64-year-old Dr Jaishankar is a retired Indian Foreign Service officer. A 1977-batch IFS, he served as foreign secretary till his retirement in January 2018 and is regarded as one of India's finest brains in foreign policy.

A post-graduate of Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, Dr Jaishankar is on Twitter from 2017 but became active after taking oath as the minister.

Foreign ministers of several countries wished him luck on Twitter.

Many distressed Indians have already contacted Dr Jaishankar, who was quite prompt to offer help and assistance.

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2 min read

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By Vivek Kumar



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