US President Donald Trump’s recent moves are quite in line with his MAGA theme. It ensures that American citizens have the first right over their country and its resources rather than aspiring non-Americans. BY KUMKUM CHADHA
It is perhaps for the first time in recent History that the swearing in of a President of a foreign country has generated so much interest in India and amongst Indians. Yes, there were instances in the past when the who would make it question generated interest but once the election was over, the interest also subsided.
For instance, when Barack Obama ran for the office of the President in the US, there were many Indians who wished for his win. Later, his victory speech of Yes we can did grab eyeballs with hundreds and thousands of Indians glued to their TV sets to watch and hear the first African American President: a “black” to put it bluntly.
It was the winter of 2008 when Barack Obama was elected for the first time as President of the United States of America.
When he addressed a frenzied crowd, some 240,000 people, he mesmerized them. He spoke of core issues and “our future” as Americans, but nothing was as magical as those three words: Yes we can: a rebuttal to those “who tell us we can’t”, to quote Obama.
The words have lingered, perhaps etched in Memory for the decade and a half plus that they were uttered by the then President elect.
The second time when an election in the US generated interest was when Kamala Harris was running for the office of the Vice President. Then it was less about Harris and more about an Indian making it to the second highest office of the US. That she did little for India even while carrying her Indian origins on her sleeve, during the campaign, is another matter.
This time around when the US was set to elect its 47th President there was a kind of lukewarm interest: in fact, it was more about Trump, the man and the maverick, rather than a man running for a country’s highest office. It was more about the assassination attempt on him, dismissed by many as one that was staged, than what he was saying or promising to do: it was more about the theatrics and histrionics than content.
There was, of course, the usual pre-poll rhetoric about illegal immigrants and trade tariffs as there was about making America great again or MAGA so to speak.
Indians were skeptical but also aware that pre-poll rhetoric is more for domestic consumption than one that would have international repercussions.
But Trump being Trump, within hours of taking over, he signed over 20 executive orders: more than any US President in the past had done on Day one.
That said, he also started by rescinding 78 executive orders approved by his predecessor Joe Biden during his Presidential tenure including the one to protect federal lands from oil drilling.
For the record, weeks before Donald Trump assumed office, outgoing President Joe Biden had banned offshore drilling across American coastal waters, affecting 625 million acres, rather 253 million hectares, of ocean.
Earlier, Trump had pledged to reverse Biden’s climate change policies. His campaign slogan, “Drill, Baby, Drill” had become synonymous with his plan to boost fossil fuel production in the US and reverse climate policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
Of the 80 odd executive orders that Trump signed, the one to end Birthright Citizenship and illegal immigration have made Indians sit up.
Directly affecting tech workers to students, the future of hundreds and thousands of Indian families faces an uncertain future were these changes to occur.
Among the fastest growing communities in the US, Indian Americans number around 5.4 million of the US population.
Till Trump reversed it, the Birthright Citizenship entitled US citizenship to anyone born on American soil irrespective of the status of the parents. This, therefore, benefitted children of non-American parents desirous of making the US their home.
Trump’s clampdown, were one to use this term, would directly affect children born to Indian nationals who are on temporary work visas including H-1B visas or those in the queue for a green card. This would also impact those parents, particularly from India and Mexico who often travel to the US specifically to give birth to enable their children to claim US citizenship.
As for illegal migrants, on a first count, their number is around 18,000 which India has confirmed it would take back.
But this is a tip of the iceberg because there are a large number who have yet to be identified and perhaps will be deported as and when the process is complete. The way Trump is chartering his Presidency he is clearly a man in a hurry and one who wants to hammer the I did what I said theme.
But this is more than mere optics. His recent moves, quite in line with his Make America Great Again or MAGA theme, make the future uncertain. It ensures that American citizens have the first right over their country and its resources rather than aspiring non-Americans, staking a claim.
Having said that, Executive orders are not cast in stone. They are subject to legal scrutiny.
Immediately after Trump signed the order overturning Birthright citizenship, immigrants’ rights advocates sued his administration. A federal Court in Seattle went ahead and issued a restraining order, terming it as “blatantly unconstitutional”.
As of now, those affected can breathe easy; also live in the hope that many of the executive orders, if challenged, could be thrown out by the Courts.
Legal hurdles apart, doing away with an existing law, like the Birthright Citizenship one, would require a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate as also approval by three quarters of US states.
However, on the issue of illegal migrants there is no stopping Trump from packing them back to where they came from, particularly Latin America.
As for Indians, some 18000 plus may return soon given that the Indian government is committed to take them back. However, there may be a time lag for others subject to the identification and subsequent verification process.
In any case India’s policy is to encourage legal migration rather than illegal migrants, so on this count, India and the US are not working at cross purposes.
Yet, the big issue that stares in the face of the Indian government is Trump’s policy on trade tariffs. On this, India may not be on the radar immediately like Canada and Mexico for instance, but the threat looms large.
It would not be fair to say that the odds are against India and Indians whether it is on migration, citizenship rights or trade tariffs. However, it cannot be denied that these are uncertain, rather anxious times, for the Indo-US relationship.
The road ahead may not be as rocky as many imagine it to be, it clearly is far from being smooth.
A silver lining, if one may call it one, is the chemistry that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump share. Politically, the two are, to use an American term, “buddies” but then when national interests are at stake, this chemistry could be a mere talking point.
Therefore, even though India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar sees the US as “a partner with whom we can get things done” when it comes to substantive issues, it would and should be country first, both for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump.
Therefore even while Trump’s trumpet has struck the home note, whether it is a melody or cacophony, remains to be seen.
