Indian govt is cheap, hasn't been good ally to US: Nikki Haley's son at it again

Nalin Haley, the son of India-origin US diplomat Nikki Haley, fired a fresh broadside against India in a social media post where he argued against the Washington continuing to maintain current diplomatic relations with New Delhi.

Positioning himself as a MAGA-aligned voice, Haley argued that India has fallen short as a reliable US partner. In a post on X, he claimed that India was being run by a cheap government that benefits from sending and receiving cheap labour and commodities to and from other countries.

"India has not been a good 'ally' to America. They send cheap labour to the US, buy cheap oil from Iran, and cheap weapons from Russia because they have a cheap government," wrote Haley, adding, "And it's not just India. The United States needs to reevaluate their relationship with a lot of allies."

Haley's latest comments were prompted by a resurfaced video of US presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy from 2023, backing a US pivot away from China and closer engagement with India. As the clip circulated during attacks on Ramaswamy's Ohio governor run, Haley seized the moment to renew his criticism of the Republican leader.

Nalin Haley has a history of posting anti-India rhetoric, and has repeatedly attempted to distance himself from his Indian roots.

Last year in December, after India raised the issue of prolonged delays in H-1B visa processing with the US, which had left many Indian professionals stranded and unable to return to their jobs, Haley has argued that India's stance was driven less by the concern for the stranded professionals and more by the desire to pocket their remittance money.

He has also been an outspoken critic of the H-1B visa programme, calling for its complete termination, despite his own grandfather having immigrated to the US in 1969, as British-Indian journalist Mehdi Hassan reminded him in a post on X in October last year.

Speaking to Fox News, Haley argued that many of his peers remain unemployed despite strong academic backgrounds because of immigrants coming to the US on work visas. "We are seeing kids graduate with six figures in debt and not having a job to show for it," he said, adding that none of his close friends had secured employment more than a year after graduation.

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