New Delhi: Veteran Congress leader Anand Sharma resigned as the chairman of the party’s foreign affairs department on Sunday to help in its reconstitution and enable bringing in younger leaders.
The former Union minister led the department for around a decade as the National Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs was last constituted in 2018.
“As I have conveyed earlier both to CP and Chairperson CPP, in my considered view, the committee needs to be reconstituted to bring in younger leaders of potential and promise. That will ensure continuity in its functioning.
“Expressing my gratitude to the party leadership for having entrusted me with this responsibility, I am submitting my resignation as Chairman DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) to facilitate its reconstitution,” Sharma said in his resignation letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Sharma, a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body in the party, has been the Congress’s leading face on international affairs for almost four decades.
Sharma, however, continues to be a member of the Congress.
He has earlier played a crucial role in the negotiations of the Indo-US nuclear deal, pitched for India-specific waivers at the Nuclear Suppliers Group and is also credited with institutionalising the India-Africa partnership in a structured manner and convening the first India-Africa summit.
He was also a member of the recent all-party Parliamentary delegations that were sent abroad to put forth India’s stance in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor.