US technology giants Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have decided to draft a letter to US President Donald Trump, putting it oh-so-mildly that his stance on immigration may not be in their best interests.
Uber and Stripe are also among the gang which has decided to go cap in hand to the Donald to try to appease him.
It is telling that these companies have decided to react only after news of changes to the H-1B visa system started doing the rounds.
When Trump blocked the entry of nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries through an executive order, there was no reaction from the tech giants, apart from asking their own foreign staff who were out of the US to rush back home to avoid getting caught in the bureaucratic net.
{loadposition sam08}One can't blame them; after all, there was work to be done by these employees, and when that doesn't happen on time, it means that money can be lost.
No, nothing moves the US technology industry as much as the notion that they may be looking at losing some of their profits.
H1-B visas are used to bring nationals of other countries to the US for work; on the surface, they are supposed to be used for bringing in highly-skilled people who cannot be found in the US.
In reality, Indian outsourcers — otherwise known as body-shops — bring in people, pay them the minimum possible and save American companies a packet. Take a bow Tata Consultancy Services. And join the queue Infosys, Wipro and Satyam. Truly, Mahatma Gandhi would have been proud of his countrymen who run these companies.
What happens if the Indian body-shoppers lose out on H-1B visas? Why their clients — read big American tech outfits — will end up paying more when American nationals do the work.
The thought of paying more for such work has goaded Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook into action. Yeah, despite having hundreds of billions salted abroad, like Oliver Twist they want more. And anything that threatens their bottom-line will make them go on bended knee to try and milk a concession.
The wording of the letter, leaked to tech website Recode, is so syrupy and charming that one could almost use its text to write to one's lover. It sickens me to even reproduce any of the text, given how craven and cowardly it is.
But you, gentle reader, are welcome to read it. Recode apparently lacked the guts to characterise the draft for what it is – Neville Chamberlain all over again. Peace in our time.
Google co-founder Sergei Brin is a Russian emigrant. Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella is from Hyderabad in India. And there are countless other tech people, at all levels of the industry, who would not be there if US immigration policy had blocked them from entering the country and living there.
Both these men lack one thing: a pair of globular objects.
When the need arises for people to stand up and be counted, only ordinary folk do so. These are the people who went to airports to protest last weekend. Cutting across all religions and backgrounds, they protested and made it clear that a country of immigrants could not cut its own throat.
But the rich — and I use the term loosely — have a lot to lose. They will sleep with the devil, if need be, to avoid losing even a cent.
That's why the tech companies have suddenly sat up and started taking notice of what Trump could do. Truly, they are a principled lot.