After an illustrious career spanning over 35 years, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ruchira Kamboj, has retired, the senior diplomat said on June 1, 2024. The first woman diplomat to occupy the prestigious position of Ambassador of India to the UN Kamboj who had joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1987 took to social media to say goodbye.
“Thank you, Bharat, for the extraordinary years and unforgettable experiences, the 60-year-old diplomat signed off with this message on her X handle. Kamboj who was the All-India Women’s topper of the 1987 Civil Service Batch and the topper of the 1987 Foreign Services Batch, formally assumed the post of the Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the United Nations and August 2, 2022.
A regular on social media site X, highlighting India’s achievements at the UN, Kamboj’s post announcing her retirement was met with overwhelming response, by people from all walks of life, former ambassadors to common citizens. A typical example was from a social media user Rohit Bansal who said, “35 years of service, Sheer grace and steel your impact shall endure.”
In the month of May 2024, at the UNGA, Ruchira Kamboj showed mirror to Pakistan when its envoy Munir Akram criticised India twice, once for PM Modi’s New India speech and other on Mahatma’s Gandhi’s doctrine of Ahimsa, resulted in rendering Akram red faced, embarrassed and silenced globally.
Speaking three languages, Hindi, English and French, Kamboj began her diplomatic journey in Paris as the Third Secretary in the Indian Embassy to France for 1989 to 1991. After posting at various locations, Kamboj first came here as Counsellor at India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York from 2002 and 2005, where she dealt with a with a wide range of political issues including UN Peacekeeping, UNSC reform, the Middle East Crisis according to Indian missions’ website.
She also had a stint as the Deputy Head of the Office of the Secretary General at the Commonwealth Secretariat, London and from 2011 to 2014, she was India’s Chief Protocol, the first and only lady so far in Government to have held this position.
During her stellar three-year stint at the United Nations Education and Social Cooperation Organisation (UNESCO), Paris, with many first to her credits in May 2014, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) called her on special assignment to New Delhi to direct the swearing in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which was marked by the presence of Heads of States and Government from the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries and Mauritius. She is married to businessman Diwakar Kamboj and they have one daughter.
