NEW DELHI: Over the past six months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is learnt to have been repeatedly unhappy with the MEA and particularly with former foreign secretary Sujatha Singh ’s leadership, which failed to keep pace with his bigger interests.

Where Sujatha Singh and the PMO diverged was her inability — or unwillingness — to make the necessary course corrections.

Early problems cropped up between the Singh-led MEA and the PMO when the BRICS summit declaration put in a paragraph critical of Israel, a country Modi has declared as a priority partner.

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This was followed by India voting against Israel at the UNHRC — which was along the lines of the MEA’s traditional stance, but very different from the stand of the new government. In fact, an abstention was not even considered, which the PMO objected to. It was, therefore, no surprise that Modi chose to meet Benjamin Netanyahu in New York.

With Japan, too, the view in the PMO was that Singh failed to run with the outcomes of Modi’s visit there in September. As a result, things are said to have slowed down in a relationship into which Modi has deeply invested.

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On Denmark, the PM is said to have suffered a personal slight. The Gujarat government had invited the Danish PM to Vibrant Gujarat. But the visit failed to materialize because the MEA refused to budge from its stand that no high-level contact was allowed unless they resolved the issue of Kim Davy, despite the fact that Modi had a personal interest in the Danes. The Danish PM did not come, and serious wrinkles have appeared in that bilateral relationship.

Singh and foreign minister Sushma Swaraj built a working relationship, but since neither of them had any meaningful relationship with the PMO, the MEA began to be bypassed in major decisions on foreign policy. It wasn’t long before the foreign minister-foreign secretary relationship also began to turn tepid.

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Swaraj tweeted on Thursday that it was the government’s decision appoint Jaishankar , who had to be brought in before he retired on January 31. “Then I spoke to Ms Sujatha Singh personally,” she tweeted, indicating that she was very much a party to the replacement decision.

Modi’s keenness in India’s relationship with the US brought ambassador Jaishankar in Washington into a key role of taking bilateral ties forward. By the time Modi invited Obama for R-Day, Singh had been told she would be replaced.

Jaishankar is rated very well both by the Modi government and in MEA as a master strategist and an efficient implementer. He was also able to grasp the core of Modi’s foreign policy which made him a valued member of the PM’s foreign policy team.

There were apparently efforts to give Sujatha Singh an honourable exit. Sources said she was offered a UPSC position, which she declined. Instead she chose to take early retirement after her tenure was cut short.

Unwilling to disturb the status quo by moving either ambassador or foreign secretary before the Obama visit, the Appointment committee of the cabinet moved hours after Obama left to take the decision.

Jaishankar’s first trip will be to accompany Swaraj to China over the weekend. Swaraj will hold discussions with her counterpart Wang Yi. They will be joined by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov for the Russia-India-China trilateral.

Jaishankar’s elevation means Modi now has a direct connection with the ministry, which will also make Jaishankar a more powerful foreign secretary.