DHAKA: A day after Barack Obama flew out of India, the Modi government on late Wednesday evening announced the abrupt "curtailment of tenure of foreign secretary Sujatha Singh with immediate effect" — a not very polite way of saying it was sacking her eight months before she was due to retire.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's ambassador to the US, who's a batch junior to Singh in the service, will be the new foreign secretary.

Singh is the first foreign secretary to be removed unceremoniously after Rajiv Gandhi removed AP Venkateswaran 28 years ago in 1987.

BDST: 1049 HRS, JAN 29, 2015