Nomination of Eric Garcetti as US ambassador to India ought to concern you

Eric Garcetti, the previous Mayor of Los Angeles (2013-2022), is slated to be the US ambassador to India. On March 8 this yr, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee superior his nomination for the diplomatic place with a 13-8 majority vote.

US President Joe Biden initially nominated Garcetti as US ambassador to India in July 2021. But when the previous LA Mayor appeared earlier than the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in December of that yr, he made contentious remarks concerning the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

On being requested about how he would take care of the ‘human rights situation’ in India, Eric Garcetti had remarked, “I intend to engage directly with civil society. There are groups that are actively fighting for human rights…They will get direct engagement from me.”

“These will not just be afterthoughts for me…I have fought for human rights on 4 different continents and will be a core part of what I will pursue with my Indian counterpart,” he had mentioned then.

On being falsely advised that the Citizenship Amendment Act will discriminate towards the Muslim inhabitants in India, Eric Garcetti didn’t object however as an alternative claimed that it might be a core agenda.

“I will not only just bring it up but it will not be something in the end as an obligation. It will be a core piece of what I will be engaging my Indian counterparts with…” he was heard as saying. Eric Garcetti thus alluded to the disinformation that CAA is discriminatory in nature.

This was although the disinformation was debunked by then. But this didn’t cease the previous LA Mayor to insinuate that the false claims concerning the humanitarian regulation are supposedly true.

It have to be talked about that the Citizenship Amendment Act was handed by the Indian Parliament to fast-track citizenship of non secular minorities who fled from the neighbouring Islamic republics of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and settled in India.

Sexual harassment row and lobbying for the ambassadorship

Prior to his nomination for the place of US ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti was accused of being a mute spectator to sexual harassment dedicated by his prime aide and advisor Rick Jacobs.

In July 2020 (virtually a yr earlier than his nomination by the Biden administration), Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) veteran named Matthew Garza filed a lawsuit about Garcetti being a witness to Jacobs’ routine sexual harassment of him and nonetheless not doing something about it.

“Mayor Garcetti was present on many, if not most of the occasions when Jacobs made sexually inappropriate comments, but the Mayor took no action to stop the comments from being made or even identify the comments as being inappropriate,” he mentioned in his grievance.

1. This picture was obtained by the LA Times…

Here you will have now former LA Mayor Eric Garcetti who’s Biden’s nominee for Ambassador to India.

On the far left is Rick Jacobs his deputy chief of employees.

Rick has positioned his hand, with out consent, over the crotch of a person. pic.twitter.com/dtURMEuccc

— Yashar Ali 🐘 یاشار (@yashar) March 8, 2023

“On some occasions, the Mayor would laugh at Jacobs’ crude comments,” the sufferer had lamented. Journalist Yashar Ali, who too has been a sufferer of Jacobs’ advances, identified that different victims have been additionally harassed in entrance of Eric Garcetti however he took no motion towards his confidante.

In November 2020, The Los Angeles Times revealed an image whereby Rick Jacobs was seen placing his hand over a sufferer’s crotch and Eric Garcetti smiling within the neighborhood.

So when the Biden administration formally nominated the previous LA Mayor for the place of US ambassador to India, it was aware of allegations towards Garcetti of being detached to sexual harassment in his personal workplace.

Nonetheless, he was capable of get away with it and his title was additionally cleared by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the diplomatic place in January 2022. However, issues took a flip in March of that yr when two senators, particularly, Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley put a maintain on Eric Gracetti’s nomination.

Screengrab of the information report by Politico

After witnessing their son’s profession in jeopardy, Politico reported that Eric Garcetti’s mother and father Sukey and Gil Garcetti got here to his rescue. They employed a nationwide lobbying agency (McGuireWoods Consulting) in April 2022 to advance his ambassador nomination within the US Senate.

While it took time for the mud to calm down, the transfer certainly paid dividends when the Biden administration re-nominated Garcetti for US Ambassador to India on January 3 this yr.

When the matter got here up earlier than Senate Foreign Relations Committee this yr, even the Opposition camp voted in his favour and superior his nomination.

“It’s in our national security interest to have an ambassador immediately in place in India in order to balance China, work with the US throughout the Indo-Pacific…He has an imperfect resume, but the skills to succeed in this capacity,” Republican Senator Todd Young justified his resolution to vote for Eric Garcetti.

Ties of Eric Garcetti with Chinese intel teams

As per an investigation performed by Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF), Garcetti has met with members belonging to a number of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entrance teams.

These teams embody the United Front Work Department (UFWD), the China Overseas Exchange Association (COEA) and the China Overseas Friendship Association (COFA).

The Daily Caller reported that Eric Garcetti obtained $2,00,000 (₹1.65 crores) from the Walter and Shirley Wang Charitable Foundation in July 2014 and $1,000,000 (₹8.25 crores) in 2020 to his ‘Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles’ (which was arrange in 2014).

Walter Wang additionally donated $1,400 (₹1.15 lakhs) to the 2017 mayoral reelection marketing campaign of Eric Garcetti. Interestingly, Wang has served because the Executive Director of CCP entrance teams together with COEA and COFA.

Here’s a pleasant high-resolution picture exhibiting Dominic Ng, CEO of @EastWestBank, Walter Wang of @JMEaglePipe, and different members of @Committee100 assembly with leaders of the #CCP, #CPPCC, COEA and COFA on November 1, 2013 pic.twitter.com/gnLvNefEYI

— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) March 11, 2023

“We need to have relationships with government leaders…We want to influence the government leaders to make the right decisions so that we can be more competitive,” an in depth aide of Eric Garcetti quoted Wang as saying.

Coincidentally, Wang’s co-Executive Director on the Chinese intel teams, Dominic Ng, can also be an in depth aide of Eric Garcetti. The organisation the place Ng serves as CEO aka ‘East-West Bank’ has made a donation of $20000 to ‘Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles’.

The Daily Caller has additionally unearthed Eric Garcetter’s conferences with Chinese intel group members, each in China and the United States. “The CCP’s United Front is playing the long game…” remarked Chinese intelligence professional, Ina Mitchell.

“They will donate to a politician and draw upon their well-established network of others who are compromised in the U.S. political establishment to help further the career of that politician in a direction that they can optimize — sometimes this is done over decades,” she additional added.

Conclusion

Interestingly, the nomination of Eric Garcetti as US ambassador to India comes at a time when the nation is heading in direction of its General Elections in 2024.

While some have instructed that ‘regime change’ operations are already underway in India with the assistance of overseas powers, his alleged shut ties with Chinese intel teams have raised eyebrows.

As somebody who has vowed to interact with ‘civil society’ and make delicate topics pertaining to India his ‘core agenda’, the authorities within the authorities have to be cautious of his designs.

Recently, the US embassy in India endorsed controversial radio jockey Sayema Rahaman for Women’s History Month. And it’s now seen as a precursor to Eric Garcetti’s tenure within the nation.