Patrick Branco Ruivo, the general director of the company that manages the Eiffel Tower (SETE), has announced that he will leave his position at the end of the year following a controversial incident involving the exclusion of female employees during a visit by a Hindu religious group in early September. An internal investigation by SETE found that there were "a series of malfunctions and failures in the structuring of protocol visits and the organization of the visit on September 5," which led to female staff being removed from their posts on that day. The company described this situation as "unacceptable" in a public statement. The religious group, the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), is closely associated with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The group requested that the visit be organized with limited "interactions with women." SETE admitted that these conditions should not have been accepted, and the exclusion of women sparked public outrage. Employees staged a strike on September 7, leading to the closure of the Eiffel Tower for the day. Some staff reported being instructed to leave their posts and take shelter in rooms during the protest. In a letter to his employees, Patrick Branco Ruivo stated that he did not issue instructions to exclude or replace women during the visit but acknowledged that women were indeed excluded and expressed regret for the situation. The mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, called the decision to resign "responsible" and emphasized the need for a management transition and to learn from the incident to prevent similar occurrences in the future. The BAPS delegation visited the Eiffel Tower on September 5, the day before the inauguration of its first major temple in France. The incident has triggered two separate investigations: one conducted by SETE through an external firm and another by the City of Paris, which owns 99% of the Eiffel Tower. Both investigations aim to determine the full extent of the failures and ensure that such an incident does not happen again.