At best, they will have a late start in their fellowships, which ends in December when the teacher exchange ends,” the statement said.

The USEFI’s statement of concern was signed by all Board members, except Human Resource Development Ministry director Anupama Bhatnagar in the HRD Ministry.

It was signed by the four remaining Board members: Prof Ved Prakash (Vice-Chancellor of National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi), Prof Sushanta Duttagupta (Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata), Prof Sydney Rebeiro (former Dean, Delhi university) and Dr Indu Shahani (Dean, HR College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai).

It was also signed by all five United States government nominees: USEFI chairman Adnan Siddiqi (Counselor for Cultural Affairs, US embassy), Larry Schwartz (Minister Counselor for Public Affairs, United States embassy), Sharon Lowen (Indian studies coordinator, American Embassy school), Aseem Sharma (President, Corning India) and Virendra Sam Singh (founding member, American Chamber of Commerce in India).

No OK if security concern: Home

Reacting to The Indian Express report today, the Home Ministry sent a note to the newspaper:

• Home: “Whenever USEFI officials met senior MHA officers with any request, prompt and effective action was taken.”

Fact: USEFI officials have been meeting Indian officials since June. The USEFI board sent a statement of concern after its September 13 meeting, but MHA, MHRD and MEA didn’t even acknowledge the receipt of the letter. 93 applications were pending in August, it was 80 in September, and in December, about 40 applications were still pending. As on today, 8 are still pending.

... contd.