Nirupama, India’s ambassador-designate to US, meets Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 July 2011, 17:29 GMT]
India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao who will be retiring on Sunday is on a three-day visit to Colombo. Arriving on Friday night she had a breakfast meeting with Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday. The Hindu, saying that the meeting was a result of spontaneous invitation from Rajapaksa, cited officials describing the meeting as a “farewell” Rajapaksa had wanted to accord her because of the special relationship she shared with the country. But political observers said Nirupama’s fascination with Colombo on the eve of her retirement is connected to her new assignment as India’s ambassador to the US.

This is not a farewell but beginning of a new line-up the crime-filled war partners in Colombo and in the National Security-Foreign Service junda in New Delhi are forging to shield each other, evade international justice and to impose a silencing political model in the island, a political analyst in Colombo said.

Nirupama Menon Rao has a close working relationship with Shiv Shankar Menon, the current National Security Advisor of India, who previously as Foreign Secretary was one of the key persons handled India’s role in the genocidal war in the island of Sri Lanka.

Retiring Foreign Secretary, Nirupama who comes from Kalpetta in Kerala will be succeeded by Ranjan Mathai, a native of Mavelikara in Kerala.

Mr. Ranjan Mathai, a 1974-batch IFS officer, was brought up in Poona, Maharashtra, as his father was working in the military academy there.

A postgraduate in political science from the University of Poona, Ranjan Mathai’s area of interest is military history, media reports said.

“Deeply interested in military history, Ranjan Mathai maintains that the study of historic battles, the mistakes or strategic masterstrokes that decided the belligerents’ fate has been crucial in his appreciation of surprise, guile, conciliation and detailed planning as elements of tactics and strategy,” a profile of him appeared in The Hindu said.

Ranjan Mathai who is currently India’s ambassador in France will take over his new assignment from 1 August.

He previously held diplomatic assignments in Sri Lanka, UK, USA, Israel, Iran, Belgium, Austria and Qatar.

Between 1995 and 1998 he headed the desk handling Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Maldives at the Foreign Ministry of India.