In Eric Garcetti, the Biden admin may finally get an ambassador to India

US President Joe Biden nominated Eric Garcetti for the post of ambassador to India in July 2021, but the Senate has held up his confirmation

He packed his bags and was ready to go more than 600 days ago. But at last, he might actually be leaving on a jet plane. On 8 March, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is slated to vote to advance the nomination of former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as US Ambassador to India. Garcetti's nomination is expected to garner enough Democratic support to advance through the Committee. Some Senators who had reservations about him have indicated they might have changed their minds.

US President Joe Biden nominated Eric Garcetti for the post of ambassador to India in July 2021. But sexual harassment allegations levelled against Garcetti's former municipal aide Rick Jacobs—and suggestions that they were brought to his notice and he ignored them—have held up the Senate hearing and confirmation.

A US Senate report published in May 2022 suggested that it was "extremely unlikely" that Garcetti was unaware of sexual harassment and racist behaviour by Jacobs. A separate report by an outside law firm commissioned by the City of Los Angeles, published before the Senate report, cleared Garcetti and Jacobs of wrongdoing. 

On 3 January this year, Biden announced that he was resubmitting Garcetti's name to the Senate, which now has one more Democrat since the US midterm elections.

Obstructions to Garcetti's appointment were bipartisan. He conceded as much when he told CNN in December 2022: "I've stopped doing the guessing game of the when, but I feel quite optimistic…I have good support from Republicans and Democrats who recognise this is a critical position. … I can't wait to get to work."

He was not the only one who was anxious to start work. "I am committed to making the US-India partnership among the closest we have," President Biden declared during a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2022. Just before India assumed the presidency of the G20, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken termed the US relationship with India as "one of the most consequential in the world." 

New Delhi has had no US Ambassador since 2021, when Ken Juster stepped down at the end of the Trump administration.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says: "While White House officials shrug and privately blame the Senate confirmation process for the absence of a permanent ambassador, the question remains: If India matters as much as the US says it does, why has the administration not acted more forcefully to get its nominee confirmed?"

Not all hurdles have been crossed. "One of these nominees has ignored credible sexual assault accusations in his prior office", said Senator Marco Rubio, Republican Senator from Florida, in a statement last month announcing his intention to oppose six ambassadorial nominations proposed by the Biden administration, including Garcetti's. "I will not turn a blind eye to these absurd nominations, which will hasten America's decline."

But some have had a rethink. "I'm ready to move on," Mazie Hirono (Democrat Senator from Hawaii, who will back Garcetti, told local media last month. Tammy Duckworth (Democrat Senator from Illinois) has also indicated she will support Garcetti.

Apart from everything else, Washington is running out of time. The G20 summit, due in September, will see a New Delhi visit by President Biden. Without an ambassador in place before that, it could be embarrassing. "In India, where we have no ambassador, we are struggling to gain New Delhi's support for pressure on Russia to end its aggression in Ukraine and working to develop greater ties to the second-most populous country on earth (on track to become the most populous soon)" says Eric Rubin, President of the American Foreign Service Association whose members include serving and retired members of the foreign service.