New regime in India, new US envoy. Add ups
In normal circumstances, nothing much would have been read into US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell's decision to resign and return to a more sedate lifestyle. The veteran diplomat was on the verge of retirement anyway. That may have made the Barack Obama Administration's task to shunt her out of India easier, but apparently it was not the reason. Ms Powell may well have served much longer than May-end, before which she is now expected to quit, had India-US relations not hit a roadblock due to the Devyani Khobragade issue, and the prospect of Mr Narendra Modi becoming India’s next Prime Minister grown real. As her country's envoy to India, Ms Powell came under attack after the US embassy managed to ship out family members of Sangeeta Richard, the domestic help who had levelled various charges against her employer and Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, then posted in the US. While those accusations had led to Ms Khobragade's arrest in the US and resulted in a serious diplomatic row between New Delhi and Washington, DC — the impact of which remains — the move to surreptitiously move out the help’s family members from India worsened the unsavoury episode. Ms Powell's role came in for sharp criticism here. It would be wrong, though, to pin the entire blame for the souring of relations between the two countries over the Khobragade issue on Ms Powell alone. The authorities in the US too handled the matter in a callous and insensitive fashion, giving no indication that they were dealing with a diplomat who represented a friendly country — a country with which the Obama Administration is seeking to craft a more vibrant and long-term relationship in areas as varied as regional security, energy and trade. But it cannot be denied that Ms Powell did not help matters when the US embassy here played a questionable role in allowing the domestic help's family members to leave this country.
The other reason being cited is that the Obama Administration wants to renew ties with New Delhi, beginning with a fresh slate once a new Government takes over from the incumbent Manmohan Singh regime after the lok Sabha election. Given that a Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA is expected to win and Mr Narendra Modi most likely to take over as Prime Minister, Washington perhaps believes that Ms Powell may not be the best candidate to push forward the new thrust. She had, after all, dragged her feet in reaching out to Mr Modi, and was the last among the several Western high-ranking representatives to meet the BJP's prime ministerial candidate. We do not know whether she has had a chip on her shoulder as regards Mr Modi or that she has been simply following the Obama Administration's dated policy on the prime ministerial candidate. But given the changed circumstances, it is possible that the Obama Administration thought a new chapter can be opened by easing out the old.