Shimla/New Delhi – Veteran Congress leader and former Union minister Anand Sharma on Sunday resigned as chairman of the party’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), saying the move was aimed at facilitating the induction of younger leaders into the key body.
Sharma, who hails from Himachal Pradesh and has been one of the Congress’s most prominent voices on international affairs for nearly four decades, submitted his resignation to party president Mallikarjun Kharge. He, however, continues to be a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body.
In his resignation letter, Sharma stated that he had previously informed the Congress president and the CPP chairperson that the DFA should be reconstituted to bring in leaders “of potential and promise” to ensure continuity. “Expressing my gratitude to the party leadership for having entrusted me with this responsibility, I am submitting my resignation… to facilitate its reconstitution,” he wrote.
The former Union Minister led the department for around a decade, with the current National Committee of the DFA last being constituted in 2018. Under his stewardship, the DFA actively built and strengthened the Congress’s ties with like-minded political parties across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America, creating institutional mechanisms for regular exchanges with global political and international organisations.
Sharma has played a pivotal role in several major diplomatic initiatives, including negotiations for the Indo-US nuclear deal, securing India-specific waivers from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and institutionalising the India-Africa partnership through the first India-Africa summit. He was also a key member of all-party delegations sent abroad after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and, more recently, in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor to articulate India’s position on global platforms.
As commerce minister, Sharma oversaw the signing of the first-ever WTO Agreement and several comprehensive trade pacts. His association with the Congress’s international initiatives dates back to his tenure as Indian Youth Congress president in the mid-1980s, when he played a role in the NAM Youth Conference (1985) and the historic Anti-Apartheid Conference (1987).
The DFA, under his leadership, also convened the Satyagraha Centenary Conference in 2007 and the international conference on the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru in 2014, both chaired by Sonia Gandhi and attended by eminent world leaders.
Despite stepping down from the DFA, Sharma remains a senior figure in the Congress’s organisational structure and is expected to continue contributing to the party’s policy and strategic affairs.
