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US Ambassador Richard Verma
Indian-origin US ambassador to India, Richard Verma, will quit as he was a political appointee of President Barack Obama and as per the tradition all political appointees quit after a new President is sworn in.
Since the trasition team of President-elect Donald Trump refused any grace period to political appointees, all of them including Richard Verma will relinquish their offices before the swearing in of the new president January 20, 2017.
The Washington Post in a report said the Obama administration has already directed all “non-career ambassadors” to submit their resignations as of Jan. 20 when Trump takes over and the report said officials have confirmed that all the ambassadors have complied with it, including Verma, who is the first Indian origin envoy from the US to India.
The Post said “the unusually stern and specific directive to political ambassadors” came sternly without the grace period usually allowed to let them close their desks.
Richard Verma was an airforce advocate and judge who was recruited in 2009 to be the Assistant Secretary of State under Hillary Clinton, then the Secretary of State. He resigned in 2011 and was nominated again in 2014 to be the envoy to India.
A member of the Democratic Party, he had served as the senior national security advisor to Senator Harry Reid and also as an aide to the late Democratic Congressman Jack Murtha and as a director with National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.
