Let them land at home.

The first batch of 104 illegal Indian immigrants deported from the US landed at Amritsar airport on 05 February. Of these 33 were from Gujarat and Haryana and 30 were from Punjab. "A video shared by the US Border Patrol showed the migrants being handcuffed and their legs shackled as they were forced to do a shuffled walk which is more commonly associated with hardened criminals." NDTV. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the US from 12-14 February (FE) where he was accommodated at "Blair House - a luxurious and historic guest lodging for the dignitaries visiting the White House" (TOI). The second flight of 116 migrants contained 65 from Punjab, 33 from Haryana and eight from Gujarat while the third flight of 112 consisted of 44 from Haryana, 33 from Gujarat and 31 from Punjab. India Today. Why Amritsar in Punjab? According to the composition of migrants, it would have been morally fair for the first and third flights to land in any city in Gujarat or Haryana, while the second flight could have gone to Punjab. But, Gujarat and Haryana are ruled by Mr Modi's party, the BJP, so in a shameless unscrupulous misuse of power the flights were diverted to Amritsar to conceal the sham Gujarat model of development. "In March 2024, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in its report stated, the youth unemployment rate" in Gujarat has risen "from 5.6% in 2000 to 6.2% in 2012 and then increasing nearly threefold, to nearly 18% in 2018 and reaching around 15.1% in 2020." BW. As proof, "In 2023, out of 67,391 Indian illegal migrants in the US, Gujaratis were 41,330." "In 2023, the average daily wage for agricultural workers, at Rs 242, was the lowest in India, and far behind that in Bihar, one of India's poorest states," wrote Prof Christophe Jaffrelot. On 21 December 2023, French officials grounded a plane carrying 303 Indians, including 11 unaccompanied minors, at Vatry airport. 276 were repatriated to India while 27, all Gujaratis, remained in France and later made it into the US. Of the 96 Gujaratis repatriated "Within months of returning home, nearly 70 of them made their way into the US, while the remaining 26...are stuck in a hotel in Sharjah." TOI. According to Pew Research, there are 725,000 undocumented Indians living in the US but "Being the source of illegal migration isn't something anyone wants to advertise, least of all officials in New Delhi whose job is to tell the Indian public that everything is going swimmingly," wrote Mihir Sharma. Meanwhile, having already broken the law by entering the US illegally, Indian migrants are striving to stay as invisible as possible. India Today. Sneaking into the richest country in the world is not a surprise but shockingly Indians are desperate enough to earn $600-$700 per month in Lebanon (The Wire), where 39 Hezbollah members were killed and 3,400 wounded by exploding pagers and walkie-talkies in September 2024 (Reuters), and whose Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted 28% between 2018 and 2022 and "may further contract an additional 2.3% in 2025 and 2.4% in 2026 (UNDP). The US may be logical. But, Lebanon? Are these the 'Achhe Din' (good days) (wikipedia)we were promised?