Shashi Tharoor Breaks Party Line to Suggest H-1B Visa Hike Good for India “in the Long Run”

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Sept 22: Once again going out of the party’s line, the Congress leader and former global diplomat Shashi Tharoor believes the huge fee imposed by President Donald Trump on H-1B visa affecting the high-skilled Indians, may actually turn out to be a good thing for India “in the long run.”

“Let’s not be doomsayers about this H-1B thing,” he said, “It’s a blow. It was unexpected. It will hurt some individuals and companies in the short term. But there are medium-term responses which may actually strengthen our hands in the long run. Let’s not allow ourselves to constantly feel that we’re the victims in this exercise,” Tharoor, a former minister in Manmohan Singh’s government, said.

His view appeared to be more tempered than that of his party. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has called the Prime Minister Narendra Modi “a weak PM” over H-1B combined with the massive trade tariffs and other issues between the US and India. Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge has accused Modi of “reducing foreign policy to bear hugs.”

Mr Tharoor, however, underlined the “mercurial” nature of Trump: “If he could be unpredictable in a negative direction for us earlier this year, he might turn out to be unpredictably positive to us in the months and years ahead.” Tharoor argued that the “net result” of the H-1B move — many analysts believe the high fee will effectively kill the visa programme — will be in India’s favour.

“America doesn’t have enough engineering graduates and software professionals. The net result of Trump’s decision is more likely to be that some of the jobs currently being done in the US will instead be outsourced to the branches of these companies in England and Ireland, maybe even France and Germany, and maybe even more to India.”

Mr Tharoor had lately be seen to be toying more of the Modi line than the Congress stand on various issues. The wide difference particularly came out during the recent “Operation Sindoor” issue on which the Congress criticised Mr Modi for “surrendering to Trump pressure” to agree on the ceasefire, while Mr Tharoor fully supported the Modi government’s stand.

The ruling BJP has been pitching the visa move as a blessing in disguise, saying Indian engineers, who form a bulk of these visa holders, could now return to work in their home country, and “help us grow even further.” Tharoor also analysed the visa move as “a reflection the MAGA movement” — the far-right support base tied to Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan. He added that he wouldn’t accuse Trump of racism since “he is known to have had friends of all races and so on,” but the MAGA movement he heads “certainly has anti-immigrant prejudice.”

He acknowledged that overall the India-US equation is “reeling from the somewhat contradictory signals we’ve received in the course of 2025.” He assessed Modi government’s response so far as “fairly measured and sensible,” adding, “but at the same time we have to be very firm”, for instance, over our fight to buy oil from Russia. He cited as “insulting rhetoric” Trump’s words that “the Indian economy is dead”, an assessment Tharoor’s party leader Rahul Gandhi had agreed with.

“But suddenly [Trump] comes around and says ‘we’ve got a good relationship, Mr Modi is my friend’; he calls him on his birthday. Talks suddenly got restored (for a trade deal). These are very conflicting signals which is why a simple answer to the question ‘where do India-US relations stand’ is difficult to give,” Tharoor argued.

“In the short term we’re like a ship in extremely turbulent and stormy weather,” he said, “In the longer term and the larger perspective, I would argue that there are still a lot of fundamentals in favour of a good relationship.” He cited relations in defence as one example of “a lot of work going on below the radar.”

Tharoor insisted he could not answer if President Trump is deliberately targeting India. “Mr Trump is a law unto himself. I think the person who claims to be able to either understand Mr Trump fully, or predict his next move, hasn’t yet been born.”

He termed Trump’s getting cosy with Pakistan as one of “many such theories.” “At the same time, the call to Mr Modi suggests that he is willing to see some merit in rekindling the ‘bromance’ that seemed to have died a few months ago,” he said, but added, “except that shortly after that call… he imposed the $100,000 fee on the H1B visa.”

Reports from the US indicate how confused and panicked some of the Indian passengers were aboard some flights leaving the US before the Trump administration issued clarifications about the new Dollar One lakh fee on the H-1B visa.

On the India-bound Emirates flight after US President Donald Trump on Friday announced $1,00,000 application fee for the H-1B worker visa, several Indian passengers allegedly got off from an Emirates flight right before take-off at the San Francisco International Airport, resulting in a three-hour delay. One of the passengers on board the Emirates flight shared visuals from social media showing people getting off the plane amid fear of not being able to return to the US.

In one of the videos, passengers are seen standing in the aisles while others can be seen scrolling through their phones, some looking around, clueless about whether and when the flight will take off. In another video, the captain can be heard asking passengers to get off the plane if they wish to, addressing the latest “unprecedented” circumstances.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the captain speaking. Due to the current circumstances, obviously, that are unprecedented for us here at Emirates, we are aware that a number of passengers do not wish to travel with us, and that’s perfectly fine. All we ask is that if you wish to offload yourself, you do so,” the captain said. Sharing the video, the Instagram user described the scene as chaotic and how panic gripped the Indian passengers.

“It was complete chaos for Emirates passengers at San Francisco Airport this Friday morning. President Trump signed an order affecting both new and existing H1B visa holders, creating panic among many-particularly Indian passengers-who even chose to leave the aircraft,” the user wrote. They claimed to be stuck at the same spot for over three hours, “waiting for the flight to depart.”

Following President Trump’s crackdown on immigrants, major companies such as Meta and Microsoft urged their H-1B visa holders not to leave the US for at least 14 days. The companies also urged their employees, who are currently residing outside the US, to return to the country within 24 hours to avoid denial of re-entry.

Meta advised its H-1B visa and H4 status holders to stay in the US for at least two weeks, “till practical applications” are understood, and asked those currently residing outside to consider returning within 24 hours. Microsoft, on the other hand, “strongly” asked its employees in the US to stay put to avoid denial of re-entry. It also asked the workers outside the country to “do best to return.”

A day after announcing an exorbitant hike in H-1B visa fee, the White House issued a major clarification to its new H-1B visa policy that had rattled the tech industry, saying a $100,000 fee will be a “one time payment imposed only on new applicants.” “This is NOT an annual fee. It’s a one-time fee that applies… only to new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had said in a social media post.