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Tharoor defends Indian diaspora ‘silence’ remark after lawmakers write to Trump: 'If influential politicians can...'
Shashi Tharoor welcomed the letter a group of United States Congress members wrote to President Donald Trump urging a reset of ties with India.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday seemed to double down on his earlier take on the "silence" of the Indian-American diaspora on matters affecting the India-US ties. Tharoor welcomed the letter a group of United States Congress members wrote to President Donald Trump urging a reset of ties with India, and said he was "delighted by the move".
Heaping praise on the letter, that had called for prompt steps to restore balance in the bilateral relationship, Tharoor said in a tweet: "When i questioned the silence of the diaspora, it was to express concern that they were not pressing their political representatives to take a stand like this. If influential American politicians can speak up with or without diaspora pressure, it will surely have some influence on US policy."
Tharoor's latest remark came weeks after he questioned the silence of the Indian-American diaspora on important matters affecting Indians, like the Trump's 50% tariffs on Indian imports and the steep $100,000 H-1B visa fee hike and other reforms to the allocation system.
After facilitating a key meeting between a US Congressional delegation and India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, Tharoor revealed that one congresswoman remarked she had not received a single call from diaspora members regarding Trump’s actions.
Citing her experience, Tharoor had shared a message for the Indian-American population: "If you care about the relationship with your motherland, then you also have to fight for it, speak for it and make more of an effort to press your political representatives to stand up for India."
His remarks drew a sharp response from Suhag A Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), who said Indian-Americans were not “proxies for the Government of India.” The Indian-American leader also argued that one congresswoman’s experience should not be taken as representative of the entire community.
“There are 535 members in the US Congress—100 senators and 435 representatives. But the honourable Shashi Tharoor had made sweeping claims about the Indian American diaspora based on the words of just one in that cohort,” Suhag A Shukla wrote in an article for The Print.
Notably, Shashi Tharoor had welcomed the pushback against his remarks, saying he was happy to have sparked introspection among Indian Americans.
Last week, US Congress members representing districts with large Indian-American populations wrote to Donald Trump over punitive measures against India, and called for a reset of bilateral ties. Citing Trump's sweeping 50% tariffs on India, the lawmakers said the move "hurt Indian manufacturers while simultaneously raising prices for American consumers and damaging the intricate supply chains that American companies depend on".
Shashi Tharoor welcomed the letter on Wednesday, pointing out that five of the ten lawmakers who signed the joint letter were at the multi-party delegation he met in Washington earlier this year.
