‘Have very large boots to fill’: India’s second woman high commissioner to UK
Ruchi Ghanshyam, who took over recently as India’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom, said on Thursday that she has “very large boots to fill” given that she is only the second woman appointed to the post since Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
Ruchi Ghanshyam, who took over recently as India’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom, said on Thursday that she has “very large boots to fill” given that she is only the second woman appointed to the post since Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
Ghanshyam was speaking at a media interaction event in London’s Nehru Hall of India House. She succeeds YK Sinha who retired on October 31. She was secretary (west) in the ministry of external affairs before taking up the post in London.
The only other Indian woman high commissioner in the UK so far has been Pandit, who was in the post from 1954 to 1961. She was India’s third envoy after VK Krishna Menon and BG Kher, who steered India-UK relations soon after independence.
“I have very large boots to fill. I am sure there was no intention not to appoint more women high commissioners, it just happened the way it did. India and the UK have a close relationship at many levels”, Ghanshyam, an IFS officer of the 1982 batch, said.
Pandit had the longest tenure in the post for seven years; LM Singhvi was in office for six years (1991-1997) and Krishna Menon for five (1947-1952). Four had tenures of less than a year, including the current ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna (10 months).
The 27th high commissioner of India since independence, Ghanshyam was part of the official delegation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to London in April for the Commonwealth heads of government summit.
She will be in the post when the UK is due to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019.
Besides dealing with domestic political issues that resonate in the UK — such as ‘Khalistan’, Jammu and Kashmir and caste — a potential India-UK free trade agreement will be on her agenda, formal talks for which can begin only after Brexit.