Nancy J Powell, the U.S. ambassador to India resigned Monday in the aftermath of the diplomatic spat between the two countries over the December arrest and strip search of an Indian envoy in New York.
Powell, 67, submitted her resignation to the U.S. President Barack Obama Monday and also announced that she would retire before the end of May. She took over as the first female U.S. ambassador to India in April 2012.
The resignation comes amid speculations that the United States was planning to appoint a new ambassador to repair damaged ties after Devyani Khobragade, a junior Indian diplomat was arrested and strip-searched in New York last December. Khobragade was accused of giving false work documents about her housekeeper and failing to pay her the minimum wages.
However, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said that Powell's resignation had nothing to with the current diplomatic tensions, reports Reuters.
"She is ending a 37-year career that has included postings as U.S. Ambassador to Uganda, Ghana, Pakistan, Nepal and India as well as service in Canada, Togo, Bangladesh, and Washington, where she was most recently Director General of the Foreign Service," the U.S. Embassy announced on its website.
The move also comes when India is preparing for the assembly elections scheduled from April 7 to May 12. A recent report by Hindustan Times, an Indian daily, says that the U.S. would appoint a new envoy to India after the assembly elections and formation of the new government. The United States is quite aware of the fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) might assume power.
The report claims that Powell had closer ties with the current Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance government. Powell is being blamed for dragging her feet about meeting BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
A meeting was held on Feb. 13 ending a decade-long boycott after he was accused of instigating communal riots in the Indian state of Gujarat under his leadership in 2002.
According to a report by India Today, a weekly magazine, India's external affairs ministry informed the Washington's interlocutors that Powell's conduct did not help in improving relationship between the two countries. It seems the envoy's habit of undertaking frequent trekking tours was also a sore point.
