All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has launched a scathing attack at the Central government after the Trump administration hiked the H-1B visa fee hike to a whopping $100,000 (approximately ₹88 lakh), asking what did events like “Howdy Modi and Namaste Trump” achieve. He also said that his complaint is not with Donald Trump but with the Indian government.
Howdy Modi was a community event held on September 22, 2019 when PM Modi visited the United States. Namaste Trump was a tour event held in February 2020 on the visit of Donald Trump and his family when he was president in his first term.
Asaduddin Owaisi also mocked the attention on Donald Trump’s birthday greeting to PM Narendra Modi on his 75th birthday on September 17, saying, “Birthday wishes are not foreign policy successes.” He also listed how the H-1B visa fee hike impacts the Indians from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Here’s Asaduddin Owaisi’s full post on X:
“1. Trump has essentially ended the #H1Bvisa system. Indians, and especially people from Telangana and Andhra were its biggest beneficiaries. How will this affect India and what does it say about Indian foreign policy? 👇
2. 71–72% of all H1B visas go to Indians. Within India, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh dominate the H1B ecosystem. The average annual salary for Indian H1B holders is ~$120,000 primarily in the tech industry. For families back home, these salaries translate into a source of income, contributing significantly to India’s $125 billion remittance inflow. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana account for 37% of Indian NRI deposits. A major source of intergenerational mobility has been closed. But who is to blame?
3. My complaint is not against Trump, he did what he wanted. My quarrel is with this government: what did you achieve with Howdy Modi and Namaste Trump? All those NRIs that you gathered in the Madison Square garden, what did that achieve? Birthday wishes are not foreign policy successes. This ending of H1B visas was meant to target Indians. That the US is putting its relationship with India at risk is proof that it does not care about our strategic value. We are a strategic partner of the US, and if they don’t see us as allies, then it is a failure of this government. Also Read | H-1B visa fee hike: Who will pay $1,00,000 visa fee, employee or employer? Here’s all you need to know
4. We should see this along with other things that the US has done to India recently. The enormous tariffs, the Pakistan-US trade agreement, the Pakistan-Saudi agreement (could not have happened without US’s blessings) and overall India’s vulnerable position in the world. We are in a hostile neighbourhood and increasingly isolated on the global stage.
5. India has entered into dedollarisation agreements with over 18 countries, including Qatar and many ASEAN countries. Trade payment settlements are happening in rupees with these countries. We must expand this to trade with all major trading partners. We must not cede an inch to Trump’s blackmail.
6. I do not derive any pleasure from seeing this happen. This is not an opportunity for me to score some brownie points. But the government must introspect as to why India is facing such difficulties in foreign policy and national security. Is it because you have reduced these issues to gimmicks? After all, it’s not Modi who suffers, but common Indians.
You have sacrificed our long-term gains for domestic posturing. 2014-2024 has been a lost decade.”
