NEW DELHI: After the US imposed USD 100,000 annual fee for H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, the Congress on Saturday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, terming him a "weak" PM whose preference for "strategic silence" and "loud optics" has become a liability.
In a post on X, Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi said, "With the recent decision on H1-B visas the American government has 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," Gogoi alleged.
Congress leader Pawan Khera posted on X, "8 years later, Rahul Gandhi is vindicated yet again." He also tagged a post of Gandhi in 2017 with media reports that the H-1B visa issue did not figure in the talks between US President Donald Trump and PM Modi.
"He called it out back in 2017 and nothing has changed. India is still stuck with a weak Prime Minister," Khera said while attacking the prime minister.
President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation that will raise the fee for H1-B visas to a staggering USD 100,000 annually, the latest in the administration's efforts to crack down on immigration.
Trump has said abuse of the H-1B programme is a national security threat as he signed a proclamation restricting entry of certain non-immigrant workers and imposing a staggering annual USD 100,000 fee on the visas used by companies to hire workers, including from India, to live and work in the US.
The H-1B non-immigrant visa programme was created to bring temporary workers into the US to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labour, Trump said in the proclamation.