A post on X is all it took to send a country with a $3.5 trillion economy into a desperate hunt for $21 million. It was almost too easy. But the consequences might be difficult for India.
On February 16, the so-called department of government efficiency — it is run by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has been tasked by the president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, to take a chainsaw to public spending — announced it had uncovered a $21 million stash meant for India. The US had formerly allocated the money to boost voter turnout in India but the programme would now be cancelled, the DOGE said.
Instantly, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Opposition, mainly the Congress, of being the intended beneficiary of the cash and effectively alleged that the amount was a gift from the US deep State to undermine Indian democracy. Meanwhile, the Congress found its own voice after Trump said in a subsequent statement that the money was meant for his “friend”, Narendra Modi. The Congress has asked for an inquiry. If it all sounds messy or confusing, it is because it suits everyone involved to keep it that way, setting up a blame game that can feed narrow political agendas.
What India needs are answers to a series of questions that this episode raises. Who allocated the $21 million, under which administration, and when? Which was the Indian agency or non-profit that was supposed to receive the funding? Was the money even meant for India or was it for Bangladesh, as some reports suggest? Was any of this money disbursed and has it been spent or was this entirely a project for the future?
While only the governments of the US and India can answer these, there is one more question that is even more important: does any of this matter, and does India risk getting pulled into the dangerous maelstrom of America’s domestic politics? That is a question we can answer. For decades, India’s success in riding difficult times with the US and then forging a defining partnership of the 21st century has depended in good measure on bipartisan support for the country in the US. Whether it was George W. Bush or Barack Obama, Donald Trump or Joe Biden, a Republican-led Senate or a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, the India-US relationship has enjoyed love across the aisle in Washington. Their strategic convergence over China has been a vital glue, but successive Indian governments have also carefully shielded the relationship from turbulence in domestic politics in the US.
There have been worrying signs that this approach might have frayed in recent years, with Modi and Trump holding two joint rallies that were, in effect, campaign events for the two leaders — in Ahmedabad and Houston. But pandering to the Trump administration’s allegations against previous American presidencies risks ripping apart that bipartisan consensus on India-America ties. Both the BJP and the Congress should think twice before treading those waters.
The temptation to use the allegations around the $21 million project for political point-scoring is understandable. The BJP gets to paint the Congress as a beneficiary of foreign assistance to weaken India. The Congress can cite the fund to buttress its claims that India’s electoral systems are being tampered with under the BJP. And the US’s financial assistance, over the years, has indeed been far from altruistic, especially during the Cold War. But even in the decades since, the US’s aid has often been aimed at influencing the policy choices of recipient countries and, in some cases, determining who leads those nations.
The recent television and social media outrage does not indicate broader scepticism over foreign funding. The BJP has been in power for the past 11 years. If the US sent money to manipulate Indian elections, the Modi government needs to answer why it was asleep at the wheel.
With the US in tumult, India must do what it can to insulate itself from the effects of the divisions within that country rather than fanning flames that could scar one of its most important relationships. That would be one way of showing that Team Modi actually puts the nation first.
Charu Sudan Kasturi is a journalist who writes on foreign policy and international relations