Eric Garcetti: One year in India, dumbing diplomacy down

What is missing from Garcetti’s lst Year in India video is any mention of serious threats to India’s security, and how the US will work with India to contain regional conflict.

- MAURA MOYNIHAN

In 13 May 2024, US Ambassador Eric Garcetti celebrated his first year in India with a theatrical video, posted on his X feed, replete with actors, props, gags and snacks, set to a sweeping superhero musical score. It appears that the US embassy’s communications team—scrambling to contain the fallout from Garcetti’s exoneration of terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in April 2024, and President Biden’s recent declaration that Japan and India were “xenophobic”—conceived this promotional video to push “cultural diplomacy”, but the result is Dumbing Diplomacy Down.

The video opens with Garcetti dangling a pen while aides pile papers on his lap, cheerfully reciting the script, which appears in subtitles: “What a year its’ been—with lots of agreements, lots of paperwork, and lots of Deshi Kadak Chai!” Garcetti gulps tea from a clay cup, then jaunts over to the wall of portraits of former US envoys to straighten an askew photo of what looks like Amb. John Gunther Dean, which suggests—what, exactly? That US embassy staff don’t keep things tidy?