This man played key role in Kargil war, worked as IAS officer, sacked by former PM, father of THIS famous Union Minister

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has been one of the most efficient external affairs ministers in India who has attended almost every important foreign meeting, delegations and has put India’s stance on most significant and sensitive topics including the Kashmir issue on the world stage brilliantly and strongly. He has worked to strengthen the nation’s foreign policy. However, this talent and brilliance runs in the family as S. Jaishankar’s father K Subrahmanyam made a powerful impact on the India’s defence matters. He was a remarkable IAS officer and a pro-nationalist. 

Who was K Subrahmanyam?

K Subrahmanyam was born in January 1929 in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchirapalli and completed his studies at the Madras Presidency College after which he joined the Indian Administrative Service. He founded the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and became its director. The institute is now called Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. He refused to accept Padma Bhushan in 1999 as he believed that bureaucrats and journalists should not accept government awards. 

He is regarded as India’s biggest national security strategists. He was appointed as chairman of the Kargil War Review Committee by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee after the Kargil War. His work gave a powerful turn to India’s nuclear doctrine, as he recommended the application of ‘no first use’ for nuclear weapons in a nuclear deterrence policy, something that India still swears by. In 1998, K Subrahmanyam became the Convenor of the first National Security Council Advisory Board (NSCAB), which shaped India’s Draft nuclear doctrine. 

S. Jaishankar had shared in an earlier interview that Indira Gandhi had sacked his father from the post of Union Secretary. During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, Subrahmanyam was replaced by someone junior to him as Cabinet secretary. Nevertheless, he continued to be recognised as the most important in India’s nuclear story.  

After he died in 2011, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had lauded K Subrahmanyam's immense contribution. “His work outside the Government is perhaps even more impressive and he spearheaded and developed the field of defence studies in the country.”