Congress has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi after US President Donald Trump imposed a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, leading to confusion among IT employees. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi took to X and said that India has a “weak PM”. Gandhi reshared his 2017 post wherein he had said the same while quoting reports of H-1B visa and Jammu and Kashmir. 

“I repeat, India has a weak PM,” he said. 

Congress’ Gaurav Gogoi said that the PM’s “strategic silence and loud optics” have become a liability for the nation. Taking a dig at PM Modi, he shared a post, and said, “With the recent decision on H1-B visas the American government have hit at the future of the best and brightest minds from India. I still remember the boldness of former PM Manmohan Singh when one IFS lady diplomat was insulted in the US.”

“Now PM Modi’s preference for strategic-silence and loud optics has become a liability for the national interest of India and her citizens,” he added.

Reacting to the order, CPI(M) leader Hannan Mollah said, “Hike in the H-1B visa fee will create more unemployment in the country.”

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Congress leaders intensify ‘weak PM’ remark

Congress leader Pawan Khera backed Rahul Gandhi’s “weak Prime Minister” remark and said that the leader’s eight year old stance is vindicated. 

“8 years later, @RahulGandhi is vindicated yet again. He called it out back in 2017, and nothing has changed. India is still stuck with a weak Prime Minister,” Khera wrote on X.

Congress MLA in Karnataka, Priyank Kharge, also took a jibe at, saying “Modi ji’s friendship” is getting expensive for the country. 

“Modi -Dolaand (Donald Trump) friendship is turning out to be very expensive for India. Modi ji’s best friend signs an executive order imposing a USD 100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas. A move that hits Indian tech workers the hardest, since more than 70 per cent of all H-1Bs go to Indians,” he said.

The Karnataka MLA further said, “This comes after the 50 per cent tariff, the HIRE Act, the lifting of the Chabahar port sanction exemption and even his call asking the EU to put a 100 per cent tariff on Indian goods. Thank you, Modiji.”

On the H-1B Visa fee hike, AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said, “H-1B visa fee hike has been imposed mainly to send those working in the US back to India.”

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H-1B visa fee row

Donald Trump’s new executive order has imposed a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, severely hitting the IT industry, including Indians who use this route to work with big IT companies in the US. Trump alleged the firms misuse H-1B visa to import cheap labour leaving Americans behind.

The fee is set to take effect on September 21. The proclamation represents one of the Trump administration’s most aggressive efforts yet to overhaul the H-1B visa programme.

“The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor. The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security,” the order read.