The BJP’s criticism of the Congress and sections of the civil society over their alleged ties to the USAID has boomeranged with the Opposition pulling out links that connect the ruling party with America’s foreign aid arm.
The Congress hit back with Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge sharing a biography of former BJP minister Smriti Irani from the website of the Union minority affairs ministry that says: “She has also served as the USAID Goodwill Ambassador to India for the WHO-ORS program before her political debut in India.”
Kharge asked: “Does this imply that BJP politicians are the real agents of (US investor and Right-wing bugbear) George Soros?”
Malviya responded by claiming that it was the World Health Organisation which had appointed Irani as the ambassador of the programme. But the floodgates had been opened.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera highlighted news reports of USAID support to various sectors ranging from the railways to the finance ministry, including the promotion of cashless payments in 2016.
He wrote on X: “It is you (BJP) who first demonise USAID, Soros, global cooperation, and then hide behind the so-called ‘external interference’ to distract attention from your domestic failures. When you get caught with your pants down, you resort to foolish whataboutery.
“We recognise the role of global cooperation in governance and geopolitics. Go back to your master, wagging your tails and ask him how much money did USAID give to the initiatives of his govt,” he wrote.
X user Aditya Ojha pulled out a few links from official websites and news reports on several USAID-supported projects and institutions such as Swachh Bharat and the Niti Aayog. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chairperson of @NITIAayog. Over the years since 2016, NITI Aayog and USAID have not only discussed but have even collaborated a lot of times. So, isn’t it right to say that it’s the Prime Minister who was always at the front, leading all the collaborations with USAID? And if that is the case then as per his party’s view on USAID, isn’t he the one working for the deep state?”
The website of the Indian embassy in Washington DC lists USAID’s support to India on primary education and teacher preparation, agriculture, drinking water and energy.
On Sunday, the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced that it had stalled a grant of $21 million to the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) that was “going to be spent” for “voter turnout in India”. This is part of the efforts by the Donald Trump administration to wind up the USAID.
BJP IT head Amit Malviya wrote about the $21-million grant: “Once again, it is George Soros, a known associate of the Congress party and the Gandhis, whose shadow looms over our electoral process. In 2012, under the leadership of S.Y. Quraishi, the Election Commission signed an MoU with The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) — an organisation linked to George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, which is primarily funded by USAID.”
The CEPPS is a joint venture of the IFES and the think tanks of the two main parties in the US, the Democrats and the Republicans, who are now in power.
Quraishi posted on X that the EC hadn’t received any money from IFES and the MoU with the group — available on the EC website — was one among many to facilitate training for foreign officials at the poll agency’s training centre.
Former BJP minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar also remarked: “This shocking revelation that organisations like USAID were funnelling crores of rupees to organisations in India confirm that all of these protests that we were seeing over the last several years were
foreign-funded. They were being instigated and puppet-mastered from across the border and that there are people in India, including political leaders, dynasts who have essentially become weapons in the hands of countries and people who don’t want to see India rise.”
