A. P. Venkateswaran

[4] The circumstances in which he resigned from the Indian Foreign Service made news at that time[5] and drew widespread comments in the media.

[6][7][8][9][10] The summary removal of the Foreign Secretary, A. P. Venkateswaran, in the shabbiest manner imaginable, has...., wrote Inder Malhotra in The Times of India, sent shock waves through the entire edifice of the government, shattered the morale of the bureaucracy and aroused the gravest misgivings about the future patterns of the government in New Delhi[6][11] A. P. Venkateswaran comes from a Tamil Brahmin family with roots in a small Palakkadu hamlet of Ayilam, in the south Indian state of Kerala.

One year after he assumed office as the Foreign Secretary of India, Venkateswaran made a public statement that the Indian Peace Keeping Force operations in Sri Lanka was a mistake, a statement which appeared to have irked Rajiv Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India.

Weeks later, when asked by a Pakistani journalist about the impending Pakistan visit for the SAARC summit, announced earlier by Venkateswaran, Rajiv Gandhi replied with the now famous words,[5] Soon, you will be talking to a new foreign secretaryThe declaration generated much publicity and had no precedence where the termination of service of a Class I civil services officer being announced at a press conference.

[5][7][17][18] Years later, Venkateswaran commented that the decision to send IPKF to Sri Lanka was a mistake which finally led to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.