US embassy employee alleges she was inhumanly forced to resign

A former employee of the American Embassy in New Delhi has lodged a complaint with the National Commission for Women, alleging that she had been unduly and inhumanly forced to resign from her job at the US mission in October last year.

Aparna Srivastava, who worked as a political specialist with the American Embassy in New Delhi in 2012, also wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs last week, requesting the latter to take it up with the US Government. The MEA, which has of late asked for the salary details of the Indian employees of the US missions in the country, is understood to be looking into her allegations too.

Srivastava was appointed by the US Embassy as a political specialist on July 2, 2012. She was, however, allegedly forced to resign on October 19 that year itself. She lodged the complaint with the National Commission for Women recently.

Accusing the officials in US mission here of treating her in a “most inhuman” way, Srivastava alleged that just three-and-a-half months after she took up her job, Deputy Minister Councilor (Political) of the American Embassy, Gautam Rana, took her to the human resource section of the embassy at 2 p.m. on October 19 last year saying that it was part of a routine exercise.

“The HR officers seized my Blackberry and said my services were being terminated with immediate effect. I was not allowed to call anyone in the embassy or outside and was illegitimately confined in a room. I could not move out from there till I signed a pre-drafted resignation letter. I was not given a copy of that resignation letter and was not even allowed to get my personal belongings,” she alleged.