Another gets Senate nod to be DC federal judge
Rajiv Shah, the topmost Indian-American official in the Obama administration, has resigned as the Administrator of US Agency for International Development (USAID).The reasons for Shah’s resignation were not immediately clear, but a media report tended to link it to the US announcement on restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba.
A report by the Associated Press referred to the intense criticism of USAID from some lawmakers and the Cuban Government alike for its Cuba-related programmes.The report spoke of an AP investigation this year which revealed that USAID with the help of another Washington-based contractor “created a Twitter-like service, staged a health workshop to recruit activists and infiltrated the island’s hip-hop community”.
While announcing his decision to step down, Shah himself declined to go into the reasons. He said he was leaving the agency with “mixed emotions” and praised President Obama for reinvigorating the agency’s mission. Obama heaped praise on Shah’s stewardship of USAID. “For the past five years, Raj Shah has been at the center of my administration’s efforts to advance our global development agenda,” Barack Obama said in a statement Wednesday.
He said Shah “embodied America’s finest values by proactively advancing our development priorities, including ending global poverty, championing food security, promoting health and nutrition, expanding access to energy sources, and supporting political and economic reform in closed societies”.
In his six years in office, President Obama has named far more number of Indian-Americans than his predecessors to key roles in his administration. And Shah occupied the highest slot among them. He was regarded as the No. 3 in the State Department pecking order, after the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary. One of Obama’s new Indian-American nominees, meanwhile, secured the Senate confirmation on Tuesday. Amit Privyavadan Mehta will take charge as a federal judge in the District of Columbia.