Eric Garcetti did nothing to advance Indo-US relations, which surprised no one who scrutinized his public embrace of Communist China when he served as Mayor of Los Angeles from 2013-2022.
NEW YORK: On 22 November 2024, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti posted a cartoonish video on social media to promote a USAID funded Sesame Street Workshop in India, where he cavorts with Muppets and chirps: “Together we’re inspiring future leaders and creating brighter futures for every child!” To date, Garcetti has posted nothing about the escalating crisis in Bangladesh or Chinese military incursions into Indian sovereign territory, but the good news is that the incoming Trump administration will soon replace Garcetti with a US envoy who will treat his host nation with respect and take seriously all threats to India’s security.
Upon his arrival in New Delhi on 11 May 2023, Garcetti and his staff pitched a relentless stream of inauthentic and clumsy videos of Garcetti gushing over kulfi and the fabulousness of “The Taj,” as if the top job for the US ambassador is filming promos for Sheraton holiday specials, a risible strategy for “engaging” India, which does hospitality and culture like no place on earth. Garcetti’s most infamous stunt was staging Bollywood dance numbers, in tacky costumes and sunglasses, in front of the US Chancery during Diwali season in 2023 and 2024, a spectacle savaged on social media and roundly mocked in the diplomatic corps. Garcetti’s gauche public appearances went over as poorly as his artificial media posts about the marvels of masala chai, because Indians are too smart for this condescending peppy tourist act, nor are Indians dazzled by Sesame Street videos or USAID grants, when multiple crises are exploding across South and West Asia.
Garcetti did nothing to advance Indo-US relations, which surprised no one who scrutinized his public embrace of Communist China when he served as Mayor of Los Angeles from 2013-2022. The California Policy Center alleged Garcetti “has taken vast sums of money from groups with ties to Chinese intelligence services, a particular potential disqualifier from being ambassador to India.” In July 2024, Garcetti scolded Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his state visit to Moscow, stating that the Indo-US ties were not deep enough to be taken “for granted.” In April 2024, Garcetti exonerated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun’s “free speech” when Pannun threatened to bomb Air India and kill Indian officials. Garcetti was supportive of US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome’s controversial visit to Gilgit-Baltistan in POK, which Blome called “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” on his X feed. Arindam Bagchi, India’s superlative MEA spokesman promptly stated, “We have conveyed our objections and reservations to the United States.” Garcetti shrugged off the matter whilst swooning over jalebis on X, embarrassing the USA and Dumbing Diplomacy Down.
Garcetti’s boss, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, has been an abject disaster—from the disastrous pullout from Kabul in 2019, spending billions of US taxpayer dollars on the ruinous war in Ukraine, failing to keep the peace in the Middle East while allocating 2 billion USD for global “LGBTQ initiatives.” Blinken consistently showed disrespect to democratic India while prostrating to the totalitarian dictators in the CCP, which again surprised no one who followed the money: prior to his Senate confirmation hearings in 2021, Blinken scrubbed the website of his consulting firm WestExec that had many Chinese Communist clients, but multiple investigators already downloaded the CCP receipts. Blinken also ran the Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which received over US $60 million from Chinese Communist front groups.
After Trump’s sweeping electoral victory on 5 November, a Free Beacon report found that Blinken spent federal money on what a source described as a “cry session” for staff to cope with Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss. In a letter to Blinken, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) wrote “It is unacceptable that the State Department accommodates this behavior and subsidizes it with taxpayer dollars.” An official with knowledge of the meetings told the Free Beacon; “For four years, within the rank and file, there has been an over emphasis on people’s feelings, often with a college campus-like fervor, rather than the work of advancing America’s interests,” A second source said “the State Department is filled with partisan Democrats who are unwilling or unable to faithfully serve in the Trump administration.”
Millions of Americans are celebrating the 2024 election as a resounding win for “common sense”—we want a strong Indo-US alliance, we wish to know why our State Department spent 2 years pushing scandal-plagued Eric Garcetti through Senate confirmation and produced his cringe inducing videos mimicking Shah Rukh Khan in front of the US Embassy on Shanti Path.
India has always sent highly qualified, distinguished envoys to Washington, Shankar Bajpai, Lalit Mansingh, Dr S. Jaishankar are fondly remembered for their eloquent speeches and elegant receptions with Indian artists and musicians. The US has sent many esteemed envoys to New Delhi, Chester Bowles, who so loved India he served as US ambassador twice, said: “We believe that a free, prosperous and peaceful India is a primary requirement for a stable and free Asia…America and India are working for precisely the same objectives; the right to live in a free society, the opportunity for all to live in a peaceful world.”
75% of Americans approve of how Trump is conducting his presidential transition. A new US ambassador will soon reside at Roosevelt House and US citizens will be spared the humiliation of watching Garcetti waste our tax dollars on fatuous foodie videos as his tenure mercifully concludes.
* Maura Moynihan is a New York-based journalist and author. Her website is: mauramoynihan.net.