“We have seen some reports. That is where I leave it.”
That was India’s first response to the President of the United States sharing a four-page rant calling the country a “hellhole.” Ten words. No name. No condemnation. Just a spokesperson at a weekly press conference choosing, very carefully, to say almost nothing.
The post in question: Trump shared a transcript of conservative podcaster Michael Savage’s monologue on Truth Social on Wednesday without adding a single word of his own. Savage’s argument was against birthright citizenship — but his language went further. “A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet.” He also claimed white men can’t get tech jobs in California because Indians and Chinese control internal hiring.
Trump didn’t write it. He amplified it to millions. The distinction matters legally. Diplomatically, it doesn’t.
India’s Two Responses Tell the Real Story
The 10-word brush-off came first — MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal at a routine presser. Then outrage built. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called it “extremely insulting.” TMC’s Mahua Moitra tweeted at Modi that his friend Trump “just called India a hell hole and all Indians gangsters with laptops.” It was the second time in weeks a Trump-aligned figure’s anti-India rhetoric forced a diplomatic reckoning, after Laura Loomer’s anti-India remarks at the India Today Conclave.
By Thursday, the MEA upgraded. The official statement called Savage’s remarks “obviously uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste” and noted they “certainly do not reflect the reality of the India-US relationship.” Stronger — but still without naming Trump.
That gap between response one and response two is the story. India needs the trade deal that cut tariffs from 50% to 18%. It needs H-1B access for the 5.5 million Indian-origin people in the US. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is visiting next month. You don’t torch a relationship over a podcast transcript — even one that calls your country a hellhole.
The Opposition Wants a Fight India Can’t Afford
The demand for Modi to personally respond makes political sense. It makes zero diplomatic sense. The Hindu American Foundation called it a “hateful, racist screed.” Congressman Ami Bera said it was “beneath the dignity of the office.” Even the US Embassy issued damage control — quoting Trump saying India is “a great country.”
Everyone condemned it. India measured its words in teaspoons. That’s not weakness — it’s a 5.5-million-person diaspora, a pending trade deal, and a Hormuz crisis all sitting on the same scale. The world’s largest democracy did the math and decided a racist insult weighs less than all of it.