Sipu Jha
At a time when India and the US are grappling with several bilateral issues, including tariffs and the H-1B visa fee, the diaspora should have come forward and made a strong pitch for their home country: this is what Shashi Tharoor felt and strongly voiced his opinion about it. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor met four US Congressmen, all Democrats, in India as the US-India relationship turned tricky in the past few months. Tharoor said the Indian-origin American leaders did not get any call from Indian-origin voters on these issues. “I do want to stress that one of the points we raised was why the Indian-American diaspora has been so silent about all of this,” Tharoor said. “One of the congresswomen said that not one phone call has come to her office from any Indian-American voter asking for her to support a change of policy, and this is something that is surprising.”
‘Wonder if Indians are calling for…’
Florida’s Republican leader Chandler Langevin cited Shashi Tharoor’s critique of Indian-Americans and questioned if Indians in India were calling for the MP’s resignation over these “hateful anti-American remarks”. Langevin has been at the center of a storm as he made some anti-India comments in connection with H-1B. He said Indians living in the US do not care about America. The comments led to such a furore that Florida’s Palm Bay council voted for Langevin’s removal because of his racist remarks. He defended his remarks and said the Indian-American community was not his target — illegal immigrants, visa holders were.
Silence of Indian-American diaspora
Indian-American tech CEOs have not commented on the H-1B issue, though their companies will have to pay $100,000 to hire Indians on H-1B visa now. Hindu America Foundation director Suhag A Shukla said India and Indian politicians should not expect the diaspora to speak up now because they are not consulted for policies. “The Govt of India does not ask our approval for its oil policy or import duties, and so @shashitharoor and the GOI shouldn’t be expecting us to champion their sovereign policy decisions with the U.S. government. They can hire lobbyists for that,” Shukla wrote adding that the diaspora is hit with accusations of being foreign agents and still they do what they can do.Canadian Hindu activist Shawn Binda said when the diaspora speaks up for India, they are asked to ‘go back’. “What about someone like me? Born in Canada, parents from Trinidad, roots in India. Where am I supposed to plant my flag? Do I go to bat for Trinidad? For India? For Canada, where I was born and built my life?” Binda said.
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