Government slams Vance’s remarks on Indian IT professionals as ‘deeply offensive’ — SkimNews
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- India's Ministry of External Affairs on October 9 condemned as 'deeply offensive' and 'unwarranted' U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance's characterization of Indian IT professionals as 'indentured servants,' invoking the 'painful historical and colonial legacy' of indentured labor in 19th-century American farms.
- Vice President Vance and U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling on Thursday announced the suspension of the Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) program for eight IT outsourcing giants — Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Cognizant, HCL, Capgemini, Microsoft, and Adobe — accusing them of visa fraud and wage undercutting.
- The PERM program has facilitated roughly 2,30,000 H-1B visa approvals and 1,00,000 permanent residencies since 2009, with about 70% of all H-1B visa holders being Indian, according to U.S. government figures cited in the article.
- Vance's announcement came as India-U.S. trade relations are already strained: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said no FTA deal was 'imminent' after last week's Washington talks, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman described negotiations as 'plateaued.'
- President Trump is expected to decide by October 18 on whether to impose up to 100% U.S. tariffs on countries importing large quantities of Russian oil under the Sanctions against Russia and Iran Act, a deadline that falls just ahead of early-November U.S. midterm elections.
Why it matters: The PERM suspension and 'indentured servants' rhetoric mark a sharp rhetorical escalation in the U.S.-India economic relationship at a moment when a free-trade deal is already stalled and Trump is weighing 100% tariffs on Russian-oil importers by October 18 — putting the labor pipeline that supports roughly 70% of H-1B holders and broader bilateral trade in play ahead of the November midterms.
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