Indian Foreign Minister
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The External Affairs Minister or the Indian Foreign Minister is a position of office at cabinet level within the Government of India. The chief responsibility of the External Affairs Minister is to represent India and its government in the international community. The minister heads the "Ministry of External Affairs." Occasionally, a junior minister designated to the post of Minister of State for External Affairs assists the External Affairs Minister. In some cases, there have been Deputy External Affairs Ministers at a secondary level.
The External Affairs ministry is run by bureaucratic officials from the Indian Foreign Service. The head of this department is the Foreign Secretary. This department is also responsible for international Diplomatic postings. The position of external affairs minister hold significance in the sense that, when this position have been vacant, the Prime Ministers have been the only person to have held additional charge as External Affairs Minister. There have been a number of External Affairs Ministers who later went on to become the Prime Ministers of India.
As of Oct 2006, this position is currently held by Pranab Mukherjee of Indian National Congress Party.
Contents |
[edit] Foreign Ministers of India
[edit] Minister of State, External Affairs
[edit] Deputy Foreign Ministers of India
| No | Name | Took Office | Left Office | Other Positions | Party | Lok Sabha (Term in Office) ^[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Dr. B V Keshkar | 7 December 1948 | 26 January 1950 | Commonwealth Relations | ||
| 2. | Dr. B V Keskar | 31 January 1950 | 13 May 1952 | |||
| 3. | Anil K Chanda | 12 August 1952 | 17 April 1957 | |||
| 4. | Dr. Syed Mahmud | 7 December 1954 | 17 April 1957 | |||
| 5. | Laxmi N Menon | 18 April 1957 | 10 April 1962 | |||
| 6. | Dinesh Singh | 8 May 1962 | 24 January 1966 | |||
| 7. | Surendrapal Singh | 18 March 1967 | 5 February 1973 | |||
| 8. | Bipinpal Das | 17 October 1974 | 24 March 1977 | |||
| 9. | Digvijay Singh | 29 November 1990 | 21 June 1991 |
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c Ministry of External Affairs Library Website accessed 24 Oct, 2006.
- ^ Rediff.com dated 22 May 2004, accessed 25 October 2006.
- ^ BBC News dated 7 November 2005, accessed 25 October 2006.
- ^ BBC News dated 7 November 2005, accessed 25 October 2006.
- ^ The Hindu dated 25 October 2006, accessed 25 October 2006.
- ^ The Hindu dated 25 October 2006, accessed 25 October 2006.
