New Delhi: Attacking the government over the US government's actions affecting Indian IT professionals, the Congress on Friday said India has a number of options to retaliate but a "thoroughly compromised" Prime Minister Narendra Modi, now under "siege" on "GyaneshGate", will not do so.
The opposition party also said that the appeasement of bullies never pays.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "That appeasement of bullies never pays is once again proven by the US Govt's actions yesterday targeted directly against Indian IT professionals."
This has come shortly after the Modi government went out of its way to please US President Donald Trump by imposing UPI MDR charges that will clearly and directly benefit American companies, Ramesh claimed.
"India has a number of options to retaliate under laws already passed by Parliament like the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and its Rules. But a thoroughly compromised PM now under siege on GyaneshGate will not do so," the Congress leader said in a reference to the opposition's push for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over alleged SIR irregularities.
The US on Thursday suspended eight IT firms, including Microsoft, Tata, Infosys and Wipro, from a programme to apply for green cards for foreign workers, contending that the practice has shut out Americans from the job market.
The announcement was made by Vice President J D Vance, Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling, and Attorney General Todd Blanche as part of the action under the aegis of the US Anti-Fraud Task Force.
"I am hereby suspending from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini," Sonderling said.
He said the Department of Labour is also suspending Microsoft and Adobe from the programme due to multiple active federal investigations.
"There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more than Microsoft," Vance said.
"Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers in 2025 after certifying that it could not find qualified American employees yet the company was approved for more than 6,000 H-1Bs and filed 3,682 PERM applications, including nearly 1,000 applications for the same positions as the laid off American workers, the vice president said.
Indian professionals account for over 70 per cent of all approved H-1B petitions annually.
The Vice President referred to foreign workers hired on H1-B visas as foreign indentured servants and the companies using the programme as visa mills.
Vance also announced an investigation into the J-1 visa programme for research scholars utilised by nine major universities, including Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Caltech.
The J-1 programme allows foreign nationals to enter the US as exchange visitors for activities, including research, teaching, study and specialised professional work.
