‘India Has a Weak PM’: Congress Trains Guns on Modi After Trump’s H-1B Clampdown

The Congress on Saturday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the United States imposed a staggering $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas, a move expected to deal a severe blow to Indian professionals . Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi led the charge by branding the Prime Minister “weak,” while Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused PM Modi of reducing foreign policy to “bear hugs, hollow slogans and loud optics” that have failed to protect India’s national interests .

The sharp criticism followed President Donald Trump’s executive order on Friday, which mandates companies to pay the hefty new fee for each skilled foreign worker visa . The move sent shockwaves through the tech industry, which relies heavily on the H-1B program, with Indian nationals accounting for over 70% of all visa holders . In a terse social media post sharing a news report on the visa clampdown, Rahul Gandhi wrote, “I repeat, India has a weak PM,” echoing a similar charge he had made in 2017 regarding the H-1B visa issue .

Mallikarjun Kharge delivered a broader critique, arguing that the Modi government’s diplomacy has been all style and no substance. “Foreign policy is about safeguarding our national interests… It cannot be reduced to superficial bravado that risks undermining our long-term standing,” Kharge wrote on X.

He pointedly remarked, “Indians are pained by the return gifts you have received after the birthday call,” a direct jab at the friendly phone call between PM Modi and President Trump just days ago . Kharge also listed other alleged foreign policy failures, including the HIRE Act targeting outsourcing and the lifting of the Chabahar Port exemption, which he termed a “loss to our strategic interests” .

Other Congress leaders joined the attack, with Gaurav Gogoi, the party’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, contrasting PM Modi’s “strategic silence and loud optics” with the “firm response” of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during past diplomatic rows . The opposition’s offensive seeks to frame the H-1B visa hike as the latest evidence of a failing foreign policy, turning the government’s much-touted diplomatic outreach into a liability.