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America Vs. Rest of the world

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America Vs. Rest of the world

Shashank Purandare

Donald Trump became the 47th president of the United States of America. Among other things, he is the first convicted felon to be elected as the president of USA. His supporters tried everything possible to uproot President Biden, even storming the Capital hill, after he lost the election four years ago. During Biden tenure, USA went downhill fast. The economy almost went into recession, inflation shot up to unprecedented levels. But being the largest economy in the world, it has risen once again, no thanks to Biden though. Somehow, Trump’s promise to make USA great again, found echo in voters and Trump was reelected. It remains to be seen if he can do this.

He did two things to start with. He increased import tariffs across the board. They will come into effect from April first. This makes perfect sense since all other countries levy high to very high tariffs on American imports putting US exports at a disadvantage. India for example levy 100 percent custom duties on some American products. India’s response: They cut import duties on American alcohol. America has 3.3 million illegal immigrants. Close to 600 thousand are Indians. Trump has started deporting some of them by military planes to India, handcuffed and all. To rub salt in the wound, two such planes landed in Amritsar while PM Modi was hugging President Trump in Washington. Biggest insult ever imparted on Indian PM, if you ask me.

Media is carrying sob stories how these people illegally migrated to USA after selling their considerable wealth they had in India. If they were well off to begin with, why go to USA illegally? I personally have no sympathy for these people. They deserve what they got.

Some learned journalists say they had to go to USA because the Indian government is not doing enough for them! At this rate all 1.4 billion Indians should go to USA. India has more than 20 million illegal migrants in India. Can the Indian government deport all of them, a la Trump?

Trump wants to purchase whole of Canada. He has already renamed Gulf of Mexico as gulf of America! He wants to own Panama Canal. He wants to control Gaza Strip. How this is different from China’s expansionist attitude???

He wants to make USA greater. Nothing wrong in that. But after all, USA is a country of immigrants, legal or not. For example, 40 percent of NASA employees are of Indian origin. Suppose they all come back? Not that it is likely.

Fact is USA depends on immigrants. Their total debt to external world is 130 percent of gdp. Their main income is from selling weapons of mass destruction. Hence they need wars in the world to sustain them. For them world peace is injurious to their health. No wonder they want to sell F-35 at inflated costs to India. For what? Pakistan, Bangladesh are finished. So they are stoking fuel for Indo-China war! Let us see if they can stop Russia Ukraine war or Middle East conflict. Right now, China is the only country that can stand up to them. They are scared of China. Merits aside, Deepseek AI has them rattled. USA will try all the tricks at their disposal to stop them. In the process they are going to screw up many countries in the world. We are no exception.

Now to India scenario. Over the years, the percentage of middle class is rising steadily. They either have enough money or at least have the capacity to get higher loans and repay them. Many couples these days adopt concept one or two children family. Rightly, these couples want to provide the best facilities for their education.

The phenomena of integrated 10-12th class education has emerged. At fees of about ₹2 lakhs per annum, these classes teach the students who anyway earn 90 percent or more marks, to crack the competitive exams in order to get into colleges who provide professional courses. After graduating, these students make a beeline to get MS degree in mostly American or foreign universities. The parents spend up to $50,000 as tuition fees and living expenses. Since India’s rupee is not fully convertible, the foreign exchange is purchased from government agencies. On an average, 60-80 thousand students go abroad every year. You can easily do the math and calculate the drain on foreign exchange reserve of India. India should make rupee fully convertible so that people can buy foreign exchange from open market and stop the drain on Indian foreign exchange reserves.

After doing MS, these students get jobs there, and most of them permanently settle there. They also find live-in partners and get married, if at all, after few years. If they get married, they have destination marriages in India stretching into a week. This of course drives Indian economy.

Subsequently these couples have children. Their grandparents, most of them 60 plus, make a pilgrimage to USA or the country of couple’s residence, every year for first three years of the child, to support them while parents are busy working. The grandparents, when they are too old or otherwise not able to travel after few years are left to fend for themselves. Some choose community living if they have enough money left. Others depend on their relatives, neighbours or well wishers for help. This is the grim picture today. I am not saying that this happens to everyone, but I have seen too many examples around.

Everyone is free to draw his/her own conclusion. This is my view based on what I am seeing around me.