"From Bollywood to ‘Bay Area Jai Shri Ram’: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up"

 Modi brand rests on two pillars. First, every public figure of consequence is expected to praise him with near-religious devotion, as though he were a deity rather than a political leader. Second, there is never any acknowledgment of failure. If something goes wrong, it is explained away as natural, inevitable, or simply beyond anyone’s control. To justify this supposed inevitability, billionaires and power-brokers step forward to present “facts” that are often as distant from reality as the Earth is from the Moon.

The delightful spectacle of Niranjan Hiranandani, the venerable real estate magnate—and chief competitor to the Adani empire, no less—showering the Prime Minister with the kind of beatific praise. This, coming not long after the entire nation watched a political drama unfold, where an opposition MP, Mahua Moitra, faced the judicial axe over allegations of taking favours from this very same gentleman. The man survives the scandal, thrives, and then publicly kisses the ring. It is a stunning, albeit ugly, testament to the fact that in this New India, loyalty to the Darbar supersedes everything, including the most basic decorum. The brand, you see, is not what it projects from the stage; it is what it conveniently ignores backstage.

And this brings me to the article on ThePrint “The Indian diaspora is under attack. What has gone wrong? By Jaithirth Rao—the sort of balderdash that tries to convince you the sky is a shade of saffron. The piece, ostensibly a deep-dive into why the Indian diaspora is "under attack" abroad, is nothing more than a thinly veiled pamphlet of Modi Talking Points, masquerading as civil society introspection. It lists the standard, sterile reasons: the sheer size of the diaspora, the speed of its growth, and its relative prosperity. A neat, clean, self-congratulatory narrative. Bunkum! This is like blaming a fire on the colour of the paint.

All these are real and important. But the article’s framing implicitly treats these factors as external, almost inevitable, but Rao, in this intellectual sleight of hand, utterly misses few key, pungent realities that drive young, educated Indians out and fuel the resentment they face:

First, the undeniable, festering wound that the government papers over with creative statistics: the Jobs Crisis. The article attempts to frame the Trump-era hike in the H1B visa fee as a mere "natural course of events." Natural, my foot! It was a direct body blow to the one great safety valve for India's massive, educated, and aspirational youth population. Why do they queue up in summer temperatures for foreign visas? Because home, the land of opportunity, has become the land of unemployment.

Let us not be charmed by the glossy veneer of “official statistics.” These figures are massaged, kneaded and stretched until they resemble something presentable—yet reality seeps through the cracks. Yes, the headline unemployment rate may wiggle up and down, but for India’s youth, the picture is bleak to the point of despair. According to the Institute for Human Development and the ILO, only 37% of young people were engaged in any form of economic activity in 2022—a number that should ring alarm bells in every corridor of power.

Yet, some commentators celebrate the accelerating exodus of young Indians abroad as a sign of ambition and global aspiration. Let us not delude ourselves. This is not wanderlust. It is escape. A flight from insecurity, indignity, and the sheer exhaustion of waiting for opportunities that never arrive. The Indian diaspora, in this context, does not glitter as a medal of national achievement. It stands instead as a quiet indictment—a testament to a nation failing its own youth.

Second, the author conveniently forgets that the current regime views the diaspora not as a bridge to global cooperation, but as a political prop—a crowd of cheering extras for a global roadshow. The phenomenon is known as "Modi using the Diaspora for his politics." Every foreign visit is a spectacle, a meticulously orchestrated tamasha designed purely for domestic consumption.

Who can forget the woman in Japan, post-Operation Sindoor, saluting the Prime Minister? Pure, unadulterated political theatre. The optics game reached its crescendo after the Ram Temple inauguration. While the nation watched the political consecration, the diaspora performed its own choreographed act. In the Bay Area, for instance, a hundred-odd Tesla cars performed a synchronised light show, blaring "Jai Shri Ram" into the California night.

But let us be clear: this is not spontaneous joy. This is not the global Hindu heartbeat pulsing in harmony. This is choreography—carefully mobilised diaspora networks working overtime to project the image of global unanimity behind a political project. A spectacle designed to reassure us back home, that the ruling narrative is not just national—it is universal.

If one truly wishes to grasp the danger of blending religion, politics and expatriates, then just cast a glance towards our unfortunate neighbour. In Pakistan, this holy-political cocktail has been simmering for decades. And the outcome? Today, Pakistani labour—once welcomed across the Gulf—is now often viewed with hesitation. Their influence has shrunk; their credibility eroded.

Meanwhile, their political parties have grown global limbs. PTI-USA, Muslim League-UK—full-fledged foreign outposts that do not merely cheer from the sidelines; they pull strings, shape narratives, and directly meddle in domestic politics back home.

And here we are, happily walking down the very same path, crafting a diaspora that is not just emotionally connected to the homeland—but politically mobilised and religiously charged. We are building not a global community, but a global campaign office. A model proven disastrous elsewhere, yet one we seem determined to replicate—almost with pride.

The essay in ThePrint attempts another piece of sophistry by blaming Democrats for the H1B visa lottery system. This is utterly disingenuous. The lottery is not the first step; it is the final one, applicable only after all basic, rigorous criteria for skill and education are met. The lottery system was introduced precisely to be an equalizer, to stop the market from being unfairly skewed towards rich corporations who could file thousands of duplicate applications. It was a mechanism for fairness, not a backdoor for the "less talented."

Finally, we must talk about the ugly domestic quarrels now being fought on foreign shores. The Australian press has carried reports suggesting a disturbing narrative: that some of the malicious graffiti painted on temple walls—ostensibly the work of Sikh separatists—was, in fact, the result of a false flag operation by Hindu groups themselves, designed to provoke a conflict. The British press too was replete with coverage of the 2022 Leicester unrest, a shocking communal flare-up between predominately Hindu and Pakistani/Muslim gangs. These are not attacks on Indians because of their bank balance; they are Hindu-Muslim conflicts exported from the sub-continent, complete with the same slogans and the same vicious politics.

Let us be very. The rising resentment abroad is not because Indians are succeeding. It is certainly not because our numbers are increasing. The root of the discomfort lies elsewhere—in the attitude being exported. The ruling party’s (BJP) international foot soldiers don’t arrive in foreign lands like ordinary immigrants searching for work and dignity. No. They land like missionaries of cultural supremacy, armed with slogans and certitudes, convinced that they must enlighten the world with their own brand of nationalism and religious triumphalism.

Now imagine this scene from the perspective of the host community: they are already grappling with issues of immigration, identity, and employment. And into this sensitive environment walk people who do not blend, do not listen, do not learn—they preach. Naturally, friction follows. And slowly, what was once admiration turns into irritation—and from irritation, into distrust.

And here is where the mirror must be held up. The responsibility lies squarely with the Prime Minister and his party. They have turned the diaspora into a political weapon—an overseas extension of their domestic cultural battles. Instead of addressing the very real crises at home—jobs, inequality, institutions eroding—they choose spectacle and slogans, exported with fanfare.

So, when backlash comes—and it will—it will not be coming from nowhere. It will simply be the return gift of arrogance. The bitter harvest of the seeds they themselves have sown.

https://theprint.in/opinion/indian-diaspora-under-attack-gone-wrong/2756131/

https://x.com/business_today/status/1982690621304566014

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