NEW DELHI: With the US imposing one lakh dollar fee on H-1B visas, Congress neta Rahul Gandhi called Narendra Modi a “weak Prime Minister”, exhuming a 2017 tweet in which he had used the same epithet on the issue concerning the US visas for highly skilled workers.Taking potshots at Trump’s recent phone call to wish Modi on his birthday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, “Indians are pained by the return gifts you have received after the birthday call” – listing the gifts from “Abki Baar, Trump Sarkar” Govt as $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas, 50% tariff, HIRE Act targeting Indian outsourcing, lifting of waiver for Chabahar port, and exhorting the EU to impose 100% tariff on Indian goods.Congress lamented Modi’s “strategic silences” and “loud optics” have become liability for the country, adding that bear hugs, hollow slogans, concerts, getting people to chant ‘Modi, Modi’, and superficial bravado is not foreign policy. Posting a news report that said India has 71% of H-IB visas and would be hit the hardest by the levying of steep US fees, Rahul posted on X, “I repeat, India has a weak PM.” In the same message, he reposted his 2017 tweet when he had reacted to Modi not raising the visa issue with President Donald Trump with the remark, “India has a weak PM”. In fact, Rahul’s 2017 tweet, highlighting the repetition of the H-1B issue with the US under the same India PM and US President, became the Congress handle to attack the Modi govt. AICC spokesman Pawan Khera said “8 years later, Rahul Gandhi is vindicated yet again. He called it out back in 2017 and nothing has changed. India is still stuck with a weak PM.”
