US Military Plane Heads to India With Deported Undocumented Migrants; The Many Crises Set off by Donald Trump; Shoot Cow Thieves Publicly Says Congress Minister

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Tanweer Alam, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Seema Chishti, Sushant Singh, MK Venu, and Siddharth Varadarajan | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

---

Dear readers,

If you like our work and want to support us then do subscribe.

Please click on the following link to make a payment and start or renew your subscription - https://rzp.io/rzp/the-india-cable

Substack’s payment service partner, Stripe, has stopped accepting payments for Non-Profit Organisations in India. Please use the link shared above to start a new or renew an exisiting subscription of The India Cable

1. Please give us at least up to 2 business days to activate/upgrade/renew your subscription

2. These are one-time payments and there will be no auto-renewal

3. You can pay using UPI, Credit/Debit Cards (Visa, MasterCard, and Rupay only), Netbanking and Mobile Wallets

Over to Sidharth Bhatia for today’s Cable

---

Snapshot of the day

February 4, 2025

Sidharth Bhatia

A United States military plane is enroute to India with deported undocumented migrants, marking the first flight outside the Americas under US President Donald Trump administration, even as reports suggest that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Washington next week. Reuters, citing an unnamed US official, reported early Tuesday that a C-17 aircraft had departed for India with migrants but would not arrive for at least 24 hours. While the military planes are part of Trump’s messaging on illegal immigration, dozens of non-military deportation flights left for countries in Central and South America at the same time. Using military planes can raise diplomatic concerns and is often criticised by rights groups for undermining the fundamental rights of the detainees. Also, deportees were handcuffed.

Meanwhile, there has been no response from the Indian government so far. Though it is significant to note that the US is not calling deportations routine. The US embassy provided no details, but a spokesperson stated that