Indians in hate-filled political & Deep State crossfire in US

An extremely unhappy situation has developed in the US in the run-up to the transfer of power to President Trump, due in three weeks. A huge effort is being made via the media and social media to rile up his MAGA (Make America Great Again) base against Indians, on the pretext that his backers among tech billionaires reject White Americans in favour of Indian tech employees.

 

In focus is the H1B visa, which is meant for expatriates who go to the US to do work that those who already live there are not supposed to be able to do. A large proportion of those who have benefitted from this scheme are Indian software and other engineers. The speed and intensity with which the hate campaign against Indians is being pushed indicates that the issue is both political and geopolitical at several levels, many of which may be invisible to most. Among the likely behind-the-scenes targets are at least two of Trump’s boldest nominees for important positions in his administration.

 

Whites-only MAGA bases

At the more obvious level, this is a very public scrap between two of Trump’s vital support bases. The MAGA base regards him as a hero of almost divine proportions, and MAGA has become such a large portion of the Republican Party since Trump first became President in 2016 that the party had no choice but to accept Trump as its presidential nominee again this year. Not only that, that base is so strong that Trump was able to railroad his choices for many of the Republican Party’s house and senate nominations too. He basically controls the party thanks to the absolute commitment to him of the MAGA base of dedicated voters.

 

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There is no getting away, however, from the fact that MAGA is really a barely disguised USA-is-for-Whites-only movement. Many of the MAGA base are working-class White men and women from towns and rural belts in places that were once the heartland of US production and industry. Most of these have lost jobs and incomes owing to the outsourcing of jobs and the import of cheap products—and workers. So, it’s been easy to rile them up against `foreigners’ of a different colour who are projected as unfairly being preferred for jobs in the US.

 

The real question is: who is behind the campaign—and who are the real targets of those who are behind this? One target is another group of Trump backers. Less obvious but probably far more vital targets are at least two of those who Trump has chosen for important administrative roles. And at a more geopolitical level, the target is India itself.

 

The Musk factor

Let’s look at the other Trump base first. While the MAGA base is big enough for its influence to dominate the Republican Party, it by no means comprises the majority of the US population. Nor do MAGA voters have deep enough pockets to fund a high-profile campaign. So, to secure his victory, Trump turned to tech billionaires, who invested massively in a campaign to attract non-MAGA voters.

Two of the biggest and most influential of those investors are Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Thiel, who has made a name as a venture capitalist, put together such a powerful group of billionaires to back Trump that the latter chose Thiel’s close associate, JD Vance, as his running mate.

 

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Musk was even more influential. He bought the Twitter social media app, which became a major vehicle for mobilising support for Trump—and against the established media, the Washington establishment, and the elements of the state apparatus and the Deep State which backed his opponent, Kamala Harris. Twitter and the billionaires’ investments in the campaign made all the difference.

 

Musk vocally joined Trump’s promise to `clean out the swamp’ of long-established DC politics. They believe that the US national government is vastly over-staffed, which makes for corruption, inefficiency, and flatulence. They also believe that the Deep State basically runs a uni-party government. Now, Trump has put Musk in charge of a new set-up to close a large number of US government offices and positions.

 

It is therefore most likely the Washington establishment and Deep State that are teaching the MAGA base to hate Indians, who are being portrayed as no more than spongers taking over jobs that rightfully belong to Whites, through those hateful H1B visas. The narrative is that those visas are obtained by tech billionaires who are said to prefer Indians simply because they accept less pay, longer hours, and worse working conditions than White workers would.
The campaign has worked. A huge wave of hate has surged across US society. Indians are being targeted for abuse and revulsion.

 

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Kash and Gabbard

If indeed the Deep State is behind it, Trump’s billionaire tech backers may only be the more obvious oblique target of this attack against Indians. A much less obvious but far more important target is likely to be Trump’s choice of two persons publicly associated with India to clean up the US intelligence services—and the Deep State which has hitherto dominated most of those services, especially the CIA. Trump has named Kashyap (Kash) Patel to be the new Director of the FBI, the US’s main national-level investigation agency. Patel is of Indian origin, his parents having migrated from Anand district in Gujarat.

 

The other target is not even Indian, but rather a Hawaiian who chose to adopt Hinduism. That’s Tulsi Gabbard, a former US service officer who contested the 2020 primaries for the Democratic party’s nomination for her country’s presidency. Her Hindu praxis has bracketed her as Indian in many minds. Many observers think she would make a good president one day. For the moment, Trump has named her the new Director of National Intelligence, which would give her supervisory power over a range of the country’s Deep State outfits.

 

The Deep State’s panic over this appointment is writ large in much of the mainstream media’s coverage. Sample these opening paragraphs from ABC News’s article titled `Who is Tulsi Gabbard?’: `Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for director of national intelligence, could face one of the most bruising Senate confirmation battles. The 43-year-old former congresswoman and onetime Democratic presidential candidate has no intelligence experience, yet would be overseeing 18 intelligence agencies with a $100 billion budget.’

 

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Panicked at the prospect of having its vile secrets unmasked if Trump’s nominees take over these key intelligence roles, the Deep State appears to have decided that gunning for Indian immigrants, in general, is an appropriate response. As with most Deep State actions, the attack involves a sly, subtle attempt to defame the entire identity group to undermine the prospects of these specific Trump nominees.

It doesn’t help that both the Democrat and Republican parties in the US believe that Indian-American voters let them down. Nor does either the outgoing or the incoming administration seem well disposed towards the current government in India—whatever its loyal bhakts might like to believe.

 

One hopes Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and his minister, S Jaishankar, were able to ease tensions between the peoples of the two countries while they visited the US over the past week.

David Devadas is an Indian journalist and author who has written extensively on Kashmir and its politics.