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.

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 withgovernment 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