The government of India by not caring about its very own chained people being dropped down by a foreign military plane can pretend it is an ostrich, but the picture of an India shrivelled and grovelling and further trying to 'normalise Indian hate' tells its own story.
https://thewire.in/rights/three-things-about-india-that-shackled-indians-returning-home-tell-us
The images of chained Indians, accounts of them being beaten and kept hungry for days in the US, despite engagement at the highest level, gives away the pecking order of where India stands in the Trumpian world. Modi’s readiness to concede everything has shown up the drastic fall in the place that India commands, globally. Other smaller countries have stood up for their citizens, notably when on January 26, 2025, Columbian President Gustavo Petro refused to allow the two C-17 military transport aircraft carrying Colombian undocumented nationals back from the US. Trump had then announced that he would impose 25% customs duties on imports from Colombia. But after Pedro sent his presidential aircraft to bring back his people, Trump suspended his tariff threats in a statement.
In sharp contrast, India has tried to make common cause about ‘illegal immigration’. The craven ‘MEGA’ coined by Modi to chime with Trump’s MAGA, is not only misplaced, and contestable, but reflective of the sheer inability of Modi’s India to project power, either as a ‘middle’ power or as an alternative leader of the Global Majority. The Modi government has mounted a shameful defence of the US policy of chaining people when deported. India’s deflections on ‘agents’ taking people out of India and trying to be seen as in the Trump camp, have yielded little and Trump has disdainfully continued to threaten tariff hikes against India.
by Seema Chishti
18/02/2025