BJP govt has failed to protect India from arbitrary tariffs, visa fees: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has attacked the BJP government commenting that an emergency has struck India's foreign policy under it and that it has failed to protect the country from arbitrary tariffs and visa fees.
He also said the government has failed to protect Indians living abroad from violent attacks.
In a post on microblogging site X on Saturday, Yadav said, "An emergency has struck foreign policy under the BJP rule: The BJP government is unable to protect India from arbitrary tariffs and arbitrary visa fees."
He said the government is unable to keep up relations with neighbouring countries, adhere to the country's historical non-alignment policy, protect overseas Indians from handcuffs, chains, public humiliation and violent attacks, and bring any country along on the matter of terrorism.
The post in Hindi added that the BJP government has put the foreign policy aside.
Speaking to reporters at the party office in Lucknow, the Samajwadi Party chief slammed the Centre over the US hiking H1-B visa fee, which is expected to affect several Indians.
"Your foreign policy has failed in the foreign countries. Your economic policies have failed. You have failed in making relationships," he said.
Yadav also attacked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, alleging that he wanted guns in people's hands, not books.
"Try to remember, he (Adityanath) does not want anyone to go abroad, neither for studies nor for work, but only to operate guns. People can go to Russia, join the army there. Go to Israel, and fight along with its army. (He wants) those with H-1B visas to go for good jobs," Yadav said.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said Indians will only get visa relief once the Narendra Modi-led Central government is out of power.
US President Donald Trump had on Friday signed a proclamation that will raise the fee for H-1B visas to a staggering USD 100,000 (Rs 88 lakh) annually.
The Trump administration's latest move to crack down on immigration is likely to impact thousands of Indian professionals.
White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said the H-1B non-immigrant visa programme is one of the most abused visa systems in the country's current immigration system, and the hike in visa fees is intended to allow only highly skilled labourers, who work in fields where Americans are not employed, to enter the United States.
The move, he said, is aimed at protecting American workers from being replaced.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
West Asia war: Vessel carrying 20,000 tonnes of LPG reaches Gujarat crossing Strait of Hormuz
Kandla (Gujarat) (PTI): A vessel carrying 20,000 metric tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) arrived at Deendayal Port Authority in Kandla in Gujarat after crossing the Strait of Hormuz amid the West Asia crisis, officials said on Sunday.
The Marshall Islands-flagged MV SYMI started its journey from Qatar and docked at the port in Kandla around 11.30 pm on Saturday after crossing the Strait of Hormuz on May 13, they added.
Since early March, 13 India-flagged vessels, comprising 12 LPG tankers and one crude oil tanker, have crossed the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway close to the coast of Oman through which roughly one-fifth of the world's energy supplies pass.
It has been severely disrupted by the conflict in West Asia that started on February 28, with the US and Israel launching joint attacks on Iran, triggering retaliatory strikes. It has resulted in one of the worst energy crisis the world has seen in recent decades.
Incidentally, at a special meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNECOSOC) on safeguarding energy and supply flows, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Parvathaneni Harish said targeting commercial shipping, endangering civilian crew and impeding freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is "unacceptable".
On May 13, an India-flagged commercial vessel came under attack off the coast of Oman.
Omani authorities rescued all 14 crew members of the vessel sailing from Somalia, but it was not immediately known who carried out the strike.
