Veena Sikri | |
|---|---|
| Ambassador of India to Malaysia | |
| In office 2000–2003 | |
| Preceded by | P. S. Sahai |
| Succeeded by | R. L. Narayan |
| High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh | |
| In office 2003–2006 | |
| Preceded by | M. L. Tripathi |
| Succeeded by | Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 October 1948 |
| Occupation | Indian Foreign Service |
Veena Sikri is a retired Indian diplomat,academic,and former High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh, [1] [2] a role that she is the only woman to have performed. [3] She is a professor at Jamia Millia Islamia,a university in New Delhi. [3]
Sikri graduated from St. Mary's School,Pune in 1963. [4] She completed her bachelor's degree in statistics from the University of Pune in 1967. [4] She completed her masters of economics from Delhi University in 1970. [4]
Sikri joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1971. [5] From 1977 to 1981,she was stationed at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations. [5]
From 1989 to 1992,Sikri was the Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. [5]
Sikri was the Consul General of India in Hong Kong from 1996 to 2000. [5]
From 2000 to 2003,Sikri was the High Commissioner of India to Malaysia. [5] She was appointed the High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh in 2003. [5] She resigned from the Indian Foreign Service on 26 September 2006 after her junior Shiv Shankar Menon was appointed Foreign Secretary of India by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. [6] Her husband Rajiv Sikri. also an officer of the same batch as her,resigned from the Indian Foreign Service for the same reason earlier. [6] [7] [8]
From 2008 to 2011,Sikri was a visiting researcher at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies based in Singapore. [5] She is the Vice Chairperson of the India chapter of the South Asia Foundation. [5] She co-edited Contemporarising Tagore and the World with Muchkund Dubey and Imtiaz Ahmed. [5]
Sikri is the chairperson of the Bangladesh Studies program at the Academy of International Studies of Jamia Millia Islamia and endowed by the Ford Foundation. [9] She is the convenor of South Asia Women Network. [6] In 2014,she credited Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for removing terrorism from Bangladesh and called for out of the box thinking for removing problems between India and Bangladesh. [10]
In January 2024,Sikri said Bangladesh Nationalist Party boycotting the general election would not harm the legitimacy of the election. [11] [12] She appreciated the Indian government maintaining a neutral position during the 2024 Quota reform movement in Bangladesh. [13]
Sikri's husband,Rajiv Sikri,was also a diplomat of India. [4]
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