BJP govt failed to shield India from arbitrary tariffs, visa fees: Akhilesh

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.