Donald Trump serves a knockout punch with visa ban; Saeed Hafeez’s house arrest a lollipop

If you are happy with Donald Trump seemingly putting pressure on Pakistan to elicit the mere house arrest of 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafeez Saeed while stocks of your prime export sector plunge because of him applying the brakes on Indian software engineers coming into the US to generate foreign exchange earnings, you are probably like a kid whose schoolbag is taken away by a man who offers you a lollipop.

Let us face it. President Trump loves executive orders, a bullying style and above all, a simplistic approach to solving joblessness in the US because he has to keep his election promise of keeping American jobs in America. He is a walking-talking bundle of contradictions and hypocrisy who will not touch Muslim nations that supply oil or host his real estate businesses but will happily jam the brakes on US Green Card holders because they just happen to have arrived from the nations he fancies as hotbeds of Islamic terror.

Trump is applying the same shotgun approach in a sweepingly protectionist approach to H1B visas — the main long-term work permits on the basis of which giants such as Google and Microsoft or Indian IT service providers such as Infosys or Tata Consultancy Services bring in Indian engineers to the Silicon Valley and other such US locations. The US president is expected to sign an executive order (we could call it White House fatwas from henceforth) which would restrict H1B and L1 visas used by Indian IT workers as part of his crackdown on immigration that threatens American jobs.

Leading Indian IT stocks plunged on Tuesday losing roughly Rs 50,000 crore in market value over a morning in response to the proposed legislation in the House of Representatives that calls for doubling off the minimum salary of H1B visa holders to $130,000 per annum.

The Bill has been introduced by Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and another Democrat, Senator Sherrod Brown, is at the forefront of a move to reform visa laws to help American jobs , explicitly citing Trump’s promises.

It is ironic that Democrats are helping Trumponomics but that is how local politics works. Remember how all parties supported pro-jallikkattu protestors in Tamil Nadu? Anyway, Trump’s Republicans are in a comfortable majority in both houses of the US Congress. The Silicon Valley may be fighting Trump’s visa ban that restricts travellers from Muslim nations and is more likely to stand up on visas as well but we are in an age of difficult protectionist politics in the US.

So, should Indians rejoice just because Trump cockily said: “ I am a big fan of Hindu ”? The answer is an emphatic no. Trump is playing to his favourite gallery and his honour rests on all the jingoism he has brought to the table. Instead of drooling at his simplistic way to fight Islamic radicals, India should sharpen its claws to fight protectionism at world trade forums.

The writer is a senior journalist. He tweets as @madversity