Should India retaliate on Visa ban?

Bharti Airtel chief Sunil Mittal has started a right debate on visa curb imposed by developed world. He asked whether India should say no to Facebook and Google just because it has similar homegrown apps. I think he has a valid point. These days we keep hearing that USA, Australia, UK, Singapore has imposed or in the process of imposing restrictions on immigration. This will have adverse effect on our economy and its right time for Modi Government to take action to save our own economic interests.

This is a silent movement going on against globalization or immigration in the developed world. Brexit, US presidential election of 2016 and ongoing French elections are the key indicators of this trend. And we should respect the desire of Americans & British to protect their own economy. The first duty of an American president is to safeguard American interests and jobs. The same is true for every country including India. Western world has benefited a lot from global trade. There would have been no British, French or Spanish empire without global trade. America would have been a sleepy giant without world trade and India & China would not have dominated the world economy till 18^th century without global trade. Even in past, countries have tried to restrict global trade with tariff barriers, restriction/quota on imports etc. But these steps have not yielded desired results in past also. When Europeans restricted trade among themselves with tariff barriers, scramble for colonies started among European nations. And it ultimately resulted in two world wars (this was one of the reasons of wars). Also we should not forget the sufferings of colonized countries. India tried to be self-sufficient after Independence but in turn it resulted into very slow & modest economic growth (which was way below its potential). I remember that even in early 90s there was a strong resentment angst using foreign good. Even in last 2 and half decades we have seen political opposition of liberalization. Today we don’t even think twice buying a Chinese company gadget or a gadget made in China despite China being a rival.

Today, Americans & Europeans want to restrict immigration and they are forcing Indian companies to raise wedge of Indian workers working in foreign countries. Even Singapore & Australia are denying Visa for Indian techies. This is against the basic principle of globalization. There can’t be a blanket ban on movement of people, goods & services. When British PM came to India last year to negotiate a free trade deal to offset loss of European market post Brexit, Indian government refused to negotiate the deal because of immigration curbs. We have 200 million users of Facebook, 150 million users of WhatsApp, 100 million google users etc. It can’t happen that Indians are not allowed in USA but we continue to give business to US companies. We have homegrown apps instead of these apps/website. We can’t allow Uber on expense of Ola and Amazon on expense of Flipkart if US will use protectionist policies against Indian people, goods & services. You can’t close your door but expect that you will be welcome in other hoses. If Trump priority is to make America great again then Narendra Modi has won historic mandate to make India a fast growing economy.

Australia and Singapore needs Indian help to contain China’s increasing footprint in Pacific & Indian Ocean and India is a big trading pater for them also. So, they can’t and must not take unilateral action. India will not sign a free trade treaty with Britain unless Visa restrictions are removed. India welcomes foreign investments with open arm and gives many concession to these companies. Today a normal Indian don’t differentiate between Vodafone and Airtel just because Vodafone is a British company and Airtel is an Indian company. We will be forced to retaliate it undue restrictions are imposed against Indian people, goods and services. Every Action has its own Reaction. I hope the foreign capitals will take Sunil Mittal’s threat seriously and will work with India together on India’s concern. We can have & should have a great relationship between a “Great” India and “Great” America and other countries.