Congress leader and former global diplomat Shashi Tharoor believes the huge fee imposed by President Donald Trump on H-1B visa, by which thousands of high-skilled Indians have been working in the US, may be seen as “the third whammy”, but 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 an interview to national media, “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 more tempered than that of his party. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has called 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”.
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.”
Net result of H-1B fee shocker, according to Tharoor
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.
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 also 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”.
'Govt response sensible so far'
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 right to buy oil from Russia, which has been cited as the reason for the “penalty” 25pc tariff that took the total to 50pc starting at the end of August.
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, PM 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”.
Also Read: Shashi Tharoor differs with Rahul Gandhi on Trump remarks
Tharoor says only Melania Trump can understand Trump
Tharoor insisted he could not answer if President Trump is deliberately targeting India.
“Trump is a law unto himself. I think the person who claims to be able to either understand Trump fully, or predict his next move, hasn't yet been born, unless it's the one married to him. I honestly can't think of anyone else other than the remarkable Mrs (Melania) Trump who has been able to have a long sustained relationship with him," he remarked.
He termed Trump's getting cozy with Pakistan as one of “many such theories”.
“At the same time, the call to 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.”
He further said, “I'm sorry if I seem to be hedging my language but the truth of the matter is this situation is so fraught with uncertainties that you can't just give a simple straightforward (answer). This is where my whole argument about us taking the longer view comes in.”
Also Read: Shashi Tharoor hails GST reforms calls system much fairer
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