When Leaders Turn Inhuman and Insensitive
As a popular saying goes it takes hundred years to build, but just a minute to destroy. When the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre started destroying one by one the institutions built over the past 70 years by the Congress, people assumed that the prime minister was going to build something new and different. Thus, despite the pathetic performance of the Modi-Government on the economic front during the first five years, the people gave the prime minister a second chance by re-electing his party to power. The second term so far has seen more destructions. No one knows what he is up to build. As the pro-Modi media kept projecting the prospects of India emerging a vishwaguru (master of the entire world), the people believed it. Now the reality has hit them hard. The Coronavirus has removed the mask from the government’s face. As the virus has been playing havoc with the lives of the people, the Government has virtually washed off its hands and seems to be suggesting that the people are responsible for their lives.
What is even more shocking is the utter insensitivity with which the political leadership is reacting to the woes of people. It is not the helplessness of the government which people will have to come to terms with but the utter disregard with which some leaders have treated the people’s ordeal. When the leadership of a country is heartless, catastrophes like the Coronavirus pandemic will not be accidental. A young man in Uttar Pradesh has been booked under the National Security Act just because he sought on Twitter oxygen for his ailing grandfather. The Government considered the tweet a false rumor about the shortage of oxygen in the state.
The Government’s view was that this youngster had put the reputation of the government at stake even when his grandfather was not a Coivid-19 patient. While this ailing man had no Covid, he did need oxygen and he eventually died. But the standing order of the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is that the State faced no oxygen shortage and anyone saying anything which suggested otherwise should be booked under Goonda Act. The people in Uttar Pradesh are scared even to ask for oxygen to treat patients and those who raise voices against the shortcomings in the public health system of the state face the prospect of landing in jail.
Karnataka is not far behind. Recently, a former MP of the BJP publicly announced that the poor should not be given free rice under the Corona relief package as it would make them lazy. What the senior politician forgot is that the people are not dying just because of Covid but also because they go hungry with no possibility of earning an income during the lock down. People are seen eating the food spilled on the street. It is cruel to say that free food should not be distributed when the poor are in such a dire strait. This politician did not stop with his tirade against relief package for the poor. He went on to recommend that putting a few drops of lemon juice in the nose would produce enough oxygen to save those in need of oxygen support. If the humble lemon juice could have addressed the oxygen shortage in such a simple manner, why the hospitals in the country are not resorting to this solution? This suggestion is as ridiculous as the one heard previously that the cows exhale oxygen. In fact, a teacher in Raichur tried the lemon juice treatment on himself and lost his life but the police have not booked any case against the leader who misled the people and showed utter insensitivity towards the plight of those who are desperately queueing up in front of the hospitals for oxygen.
A minister in Karnataka created another record in insensitive behaviour. Food and Civil Supplied Minister Umesh Katti asked a poor man to ‘go and die’ when the latter sought the minister’s intervention to ensure the supply of food grains through ration shops. The minister said this in response to the poor man’s helpless question: ‘do you expect to us to die without food?’ The minister had no remorse for his indifferent utterance, and he later even defended it. The minister must know that the lockdown has proved even more problematic for the poor than the coronavirus. It has snatched the sources of livelihood from around 60 per cent of the daily wagers.
As the minister for food, he should have given some reassurance to the man seeking his help, but the minister’s response smacks sheer arrogance of power and utter disdain towards the disempowered. In the same vein, Revenue Minister R Ashok had assured that that the Government would make all arrangements for the cremation of the dead as if he were suggesting that the Government had no role in protecting the people’s lives and it would instead help them dispose of their bodies when they are dead. People do not need more crematoriums. They need hospitals, oxygen, and other means of saving their lives. But a leadership devoid of any humanitarian streak will only be able to show the people the way to the crematoriums. These leaders seem to need some oxygen of compassion for them to arrange the much-needed oxygen for helpless Covid patients.
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Texas halts H-1B visas at state universities, agencies; to affect Indians
Houston (US) (PTI): Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered state agencies and public universities to immediately halt new H-1B visa petitions, tightening hiring rules at taxpayer-funded institutions, a step likely to impact Indian professionals.
The freeze will remain in effect through May 2027.
The directive issued on Tuesday said that the state agencies and public universities must stop filing new petitions unless they receive written approval from the Texas Workforce Commission.
The governor's order, in a red state that is home to thousands of H-1B visa holders, comes as the Trump administration has initiated steps to reshape the visa programme.
“In light of recent reports of abuse in the federal H-1B visa programme, and amid the federal government’s ongoing review of that programme to ensure American jobs are going to American workers, I am directing all state agencies to immediately freeze new H-1B visa petitions as outlined in this letter,” Abbot said.
Institutions must also report on H-1B usage, including numbers, job roles, countries of origin, and visa expiry dates, the letter said.
US President Donald Trump on September 19 last year signed a proclamation ‘Restriction on entry of certain non-immigrant workers’ that restricted the entry into the US of those workers whose H-1B petitions are not accompanied or supplemented by a payment of USD 1,00,000.
The H1-B visa fee of USD 1,00,000 would be applicable only to new applicants, i.e. all new H-1B visa petitions submitted after September 21, including those for the FY2026 lottery.
Indians make up an estimated 71 per cent of all approved H-1B applications in recent years, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), with China in the second spot. The major fields include technology, engineering, medicine, and research.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the second-highest beneficiary with 5,505 approved H-1B visas in 2025, after Amazon (10,044 workers on H-1B visas), according to the USCIS. Other top beneficiaries include Microsoft (5,189), Meta (5,123), Apple (4,202), Google (4,181), Deloitte (2,353), Infosys (2,004), Wipro (1,523) and Tech Mahindra Americas (951).
Texas public universities employ hundreds of foreign faculty and researchers, many from India, across engineering, healthcare, and technology fields.
Date from Open Doors -- a comprehensive information resource on international students and scholars studying or teaching at higher education institutions in the US -- for 2022-2023 showed 2,70,000 students from India embarked on graduate and undergraduate degrees in US universities, accounting for 25 per cent of the international student population in the US and 1.5 per cent of the total student population.
Indian students infuse roughly USD 10 billion annually into universities and related businesses across the country through tuition and other expenses – while also creating around 93,000 jobs, according to the Open Doors data.
Analysts warn the freeze could slow recruitment of highly skilled professionals, affecting academic research and innovation.
Supporters say the directive protects local jobs, while critics caution it could weaken Texas’ competitiveness in higher education and research.
The order comes amid broader debate in the US over skilled immigration and state-level interventions in federal programmes.
H-1B visas allow US companies to hire technically-skilled professionals that are not easily available in America. Initially granted for three years, these can be extended for another three years.
In September 2025, Trump had also signed an executive order ‘The Gold Card’, aimed at setting up a new visa pathway for those committed to supporting the United States; with individuals who can pay USD 1 million to the US Treasury, or USD 2 million if a corporation is sponsoring them, to get access to expedited visa treatment and a path to a Green Card.
