The irresistible whisper of opportunities.

 With US presidential election on 3 November, there seems to be a divide in opinion among Indians, with 56% of the public having a positive opinion on President Donald Trump, while journalists like Chidanand Rajghatta consistently write negative articles about him. It maybe dependent on class. "A tighter work visa regime has been one of the topmost priorities of the administration of President Donald Trump ever since he took office."  "Under a recently proposed move, Trump administration wants to limit the duration of visas issued to students, researchers and journalists as it fears that a liberal visa regime threatens national security." On the other hand, "Numerous youngsters, a majority of them from Punjab and Haryana, are either planning to embark on a similar journey, or are already on some stage of transportation." "For these young men and women the American dream kicks in when their job hunts go nowhere and their farm produce fails to fetch a a good price. It sets them on a dangerous path where they have to dodge smugglers and drug cartels, and risk poisonous snake bites while groping their way through jungles that are known to house incurable, deadly diseases." All classes of Indians want to sneak into the US, middle and upper classes through colleges, financed by parents, or through job visas, which they try to convert into resident visas by hanging on long enough, while poorer classes take their chances through jungles and deserts. Hence the difference in opinion. Prof Sumit Ganguly thinks that Joe Biden will be better for India because, "For decades he had not only served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but had, on more than one occasion, served as its chair." He does not mention if Biden sponsored any bills to help India or the occasions he took India's side against Pakistan or China. The Biden campaign has framed India's policy on Kashmir as anti-Muslim, without mentioning attacks on Indian security forces or the ethnic cleansing of Kashimiri Pandits by the same Muslims. Ganguly completely forgets that Biden was Vice President to Barack Obama for 8 years. In 2015, Obama invited himself as guest on India's Republic Day and forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to go easy on Pakistan, wrote Prof Brahma Chellaney. He supplied F16 fighter jets to Pakistan along with smart bombs and other weapons. Pakistan used these planes to shoot down Indian planes over Kashmir and insisted it will do so again. So why this cacophony against Trump? Because, "Ivy League institutions received $113.4 million in donations from Hanbun, a propaganda arm of the Chinese government, between 2012 and 2018," but "reported about $15.4 million," wrote VA Nageswaran. "Five big US banks had a combined $70.8 billion of exposure to China in 2019," and "the National Basketball Association stood to lose about $400 million on account of American rift with China". The increasing partnership between China and Pakistan is an existential threat to India, wrote Shalini Chawla. Biden could be the catalyst. Surely, people should put nation before self? Sadly, money talks. Irresistible, it seems.