Everyone can sympathize with the Modi government’s zeal to attack any wrongdoings that may be connected to the previous Congress government. That is politics that is practiced everywhere in the world, perhaps not with quite as much vigor as in India. Not very different than going after Hillary Clinton’s email server issue or Ted Cruz’s loan from Goldman Sachs. All is fair in politics so I have no problem with whatever actions the Modi government feels they want to take to get their revenge.

But raiding Sequoia’s office in India? This makes no sense. Sequoia Capital is the legendary investor behind Google, Apple, Youtube, and Whatsapp. They have single handedly created more than $1.3 Trillion of value in the U.S. economy! In India Sequoia is the investor in Ola Cabs, Oyo Rooms, Zomato, Just Dial, and Café Coffee Day. Over $2 Billion is committed to investing in Indian startups. They have the power to transform India just as they did the U.S. economy.

A very public raid on Sequoia’s office is sending shivers down the spine of every VC and PE firm in India. If Sequoia can be subject such action, is any investor safe from arbitrary government action?

Prime Minister Modi has talked repeatedly about “Startup India”. Startups need capital and foreign investors like Sequoia are the biggest such investors. Most investments in India can be traced to U.S. sources and they will be watching what happens very carefully. Modi’s startup vision will be impossible to realize if the most reputed investors in the world get scared away by indiscriminate actions that make headlines.

What can be done now? PM Modi must directly address how he intends to protect investors and entrepreneurs from this uncertain environment so that they can go back to the hard work of building great companies and creating millions of jobs. India cannot afford to lose another 10 years with misguided and ambiguous policies, tax terrorism, and corruption. Yes, one must punish all those business houses and banks that have duped tax payers of thousands of crores of rupees. But that is part of the old guard that has kept India poor through crony capitalism. Focus on that by all means. Keep in mind that raiding Sequoia’s offices is not the same thing as raiding the Sahara Group’s offices.

Harassing entrepreneurs and VCs has no real purpose and can be highly damaging to the nascent startup activity. No one understands branding and messaging than PM Modi. So he should be the first to recognize that headlines such as “ED raids Sequoia offices” is not going to help “Start-up India”. That initiative will be dead before it gets started.