PRESSURE MOUNTS IN U.S. FOR RECALL OF ENVOY ERIC GARCETTI

Ambassadorship to India in jeopardy over allegations of cover-up in sexual harassment case, perjury.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

The continuity of US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, has come under dark clouds after instances of condoning sexual harassment at the workplace, evasion of accountability, and likely perjury to secure his ambassadorship have been alleged by an investigation done by NPR (National Public Radio), a US-based online media platform.

Prominent US-based rights and transparency organizations have urged the Joe Biden administration to recall Garcetti from India in the wake of these recent revelations.

The former Mayor of Los Angeles and a prominent Democrat, Garcetti, considered a close associate of President Joe Biden, was deputed to India in May last year.

The first allegations against Garcetti, that of ignoring repeated sexual harassment of people meeting him at regular intervals and working with him, at the hands of Rick Jacobs, who for a long time served as Deputy Chief of Staff and his closest confidant, came up in a case that was filed in the Superior Court of California in September 2020 by Los Angeles police officer Matthew Garza, a member of Garcetti's security detail.

Garza, in his suit accessed by The Sunday Guardian, has claimed that Garcetti witnessed some of Jacobs' behaviour but did not take steps to stop it: "From in or around 2014 to in or around October 2019, Plaintiff, was subjected to unwanted sexual harassment by Jacobs, who is openly gay. The City of Los Angeles, through Mayor Eric Garcetti, senior aides to the Mayor, and other employees in the City of Los Angeles, were aware as early as 2014 of Rick Jacobs' harassing conduct toward men and/or complaints against Jacobs for harassing conduct. Despite this knowledge, the City of Los Angeles failed to take the necessary steps to prevent Jacobs from further harassing other men, including but not limited to Plaintiff.