External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today got engaged in a banter with her party colleague and former bureaucrat N K Singh who held that during his days officials in the Foreign Ministry whiled away time playing chess.
The minister shot back, saying things have changed a lot since his days.
"That time has gone. Now Foreign Ministry has challenges and as I had said in the heads of missions conference, we talked about only development, our new vision and our new vigour. Foreign Ministry is today working with a new vision and vigour and not playing chess," Swaraj said.
The Union minister was the keynote speaker and Singh was anchoring a session a the Third Annual Growth Net Summit here.
Carrying on the minister cited an interesting anecdote which many in the Foreign Ministry fondly remember.
"Once somebody asked T N Kaul, a veteran foreign secretary, to define Foreign Ministry. He had said the Foreign Ministry is all about three things -- alcohol, protocol and T N Kaul," she said, winding up her speech amid loud cheers.
