US envoy to India Richard Verma likely to quit before Trump admin begins

New Delhi: With the Trump administration set to take office on January 20, US ambassador to India Richard Verma is likely to put in his papers and demit office by then. Verma is a political appointee of the Obama administration and not a career diplomat. Sources indicated that it is the convention for political appointees to offer their resignation once a new administration is in place.

Usually, the new administration accepts the resignation or may ask an envoy to continue for another six months in case there is no immediate replacement. A political appointee usually continues in office till a new US President takes over.

Around noon on November 9, when it became clear that Republican presidential candidate (and now President-elect) Donald Trump was winning the election on counting day, Verma — who is of Indian origin — had said the US was “pretty divided” during the “impassioned” campaign and that the new president would have to “bring the country together”.

Even as a visibly grim Verma looked on, the mood in the US Embassy premises for many had become distinctly sombre during the counting process when Trump began surging ahead, with some of the women there sobbing after Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was defeated.

The US envoy had also made it clear that the victor has to “bring the country together” and that one “can't govern in a divided country” but only in a “united country”. The US envoy had also pointed out that “there is a need to reach out”.

Verma, appointed by the Obama administration in 2014, had worked closely with Hillary Clinton, when she was serving as the Secretary of State earlier during part of the tenure of President Obama. “The ties that bind our two countries together are built on our shared democratic values.”