Up the down staircase

Gories of visas that were used by Indians, especially H-1B. Yet, at a rally in Houston, Texas on September 22, 2019, Mr Modi made the infamous declaration ‘Abki Baar, Trump Sarkar’.

- P Chidambaram

In the nine months of his second term, MrTrump has imposed the highest tariffs on India (and Brazil) virtually halting India’s exports to the United States of steel, aluminium, textiles, gems and jewellery, sea food, pharmaceuticals, footwear, furniture, cars and toys. He accused India of “funding the war against Ukraine” by buying Russian oil, and imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods. His close ally, Senator Lindsay Graham, told India that the US will “tear up the hell out of you and we’re going to crush your economy” if India continued to buy Russian oil.

Mr Trump called India the ‘Tariff King’ and his trade adviser Mr Peter Navarro said worse. Slamming India-Russia ties he called both “dead economies”. He also slapped a humongous fee of $100,000 on applications for H-1B visas and tightened the rules for issuing student and spouse visas.

In February-May 2025, over a thousand Indians, allegedly illegal immigrants, were deported to India with handcuffs and leg chains in military aircraft.