Cannot call get_footer ()

well….how exactly are you calling it?
<?php get_footer(); ?>
like that?

Chances are ….it may be a problem with coding of your index in general, and not that specific command….

A link to your site could help….or if it’s not working at all, posting up your index.php code in a pastebin and reporting back a link to it for us to peruse could be good…

http://wordpress.pastebin.com/