The tech mogul Elon Musk-led U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been attacking U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), accusing it of waste and fraud. DOGE’s February 16 announcement canceling some specific USAID plans for funding abroad, including $21 million ostensibly for “voter turnout in India,” has triggered a political controversy in India.
Within hours, Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic advisory council, shared the post and wrote that he would love to find out “who received” the $21 million spent to improve “voter turnout in India,” as well as the $29 million for “strengthening [the] political landscape in Bangladesh” and $29 million to improve “fiscal federalism” in Nepal.
“USAID is the biggest scam in human history,” Sanyal wrote.
Even though DOGE’s tweet spoke of money “going to be spent,” a political slugfest about the past beneficiaries erupted in India.
“$21M for voter turnout? This definitely is external interference in India’s electoral process. Who gains from this? Not the ruling party for sure!” said Amit Malviya, one of the prominent spokespersons of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In another tweet, Malviya alleged that Hungarian-American billionaire philanthropist George Soros’ “shadow looms over our electoral process.”
Describing Soros as “a known associate of the Congress party and the Gandhis,” Malviya highlighted that in 2012, the Election Commission of India headed by S.Y. Quraishi signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). Malviya said the IFES is “linked to George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, which is primarily funded by USAID.”
The Congress, which is now the main opposition party, rubbished the charges and alleged that the funds were actually used to destabilize the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance-II government, whose defeat in the 2014 general elections saw the Modi-led BJP come to power.
Responding to Malviya’s charge, Pawan Khera, who heads the Congress’ media and publicity department, wrote in a social media post, “Someone tell this clown that in 2012, when ECI allegedly got this funding from USAID, the ruling party was Congress.” Khera said that Malviya’s argument that such spending is meant to benefit the opposition leads to the conclusion that the BJP must have gained from USAID funding during 2012-14.
Meanwhile, Quraishi, the former Election Commission head, rejected the accusations, saying they do not “have an iota of fact.” He clarified that the MoU did not involve any financing, not even a promise of finance. The MoU, in reality, “made it clear in black and white that there would be no financial and legal obligation of any kind on either side,” he wrote on X.
U.S. President Donald Trump waded into the controversy to fuel the fire. “Why do we need to spend $21 million for voter turnout in India? I guess they were trying to get somebody else elected.” Here, “they” refers to the Joe Biden administration that Trump succeeded. “We have got to tell the Indian Government,” Trump said.
While the majority of India’s mainstream media and social media influencers jumped on Trump’s allegation, on February 21, the Indian Express published an investigative report, showing that the $21 million Trump and Musk’s department spoke about was meant for Bangladesh and sanctioned in 2022. Of this, $13.4 million has already been disbursed, ostensibly for “political and civic engagement” among Bangladeshi students in the run-up to the January 2024 elections.
The Indian Express report said India has not received any funds related to elections or voter turnout since 2008.
There is a reason why the controversy snowballed so quickly despite a lack of details on the nature, schedule, and extent of disbursement in the first place — Trump’s war is against India’s Hindu nationalists’ common enemy.
It all started on February 2, after Trump said USAID was being “run by a bunch of radical lunatics.” His administration was “getting them out” and then they would “make a decision,” ostensibly on USAID’s future.” A few hours later, Musk said that he “went over it” with Trump in detail and that Trump agreed that the agency should be shut down. The billionaire called USAID “incredibly politically partisan” and said it has been supporting “radically left causes throughout the world including things that are anti-American.”
In India, the BJP, which shares Trump and his coterie’s enthusiasm for bashing the Left, the “deep state” and George Soros, found in these developments a reason to celebrate. India’s Hindu nationalists include the BJP, its ideological-organizational parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and dozens of other affiliated organizations.
Less than 24 hours after Musk’s February 3 announcement, Malviya wrote in a social media post on X: “The deafening silence of the lunatic Left in India after the clampdown on USAID in the United States is telling. Several of these characters, who have long lived off such handouts, may now have to sell their pinstripe suits just to buy groceries.”
Hindu nationalists have been up in arms against Soros, especially since his January 2020 remarks calling the Modi government’s moves regarding citizenship and Kashmir as the “biggest and most frightening setback” to the survival of open societies worldwide. Since then, the Hindu nationalists have seen a Soros hand in many places — from archeological excavation projects in southern India to NGO funding.
Since coming to power in 2014, the Modi government has cracked down on NGOs that received foreign funds, especially those working on human rights and environmental protection.
On February 13, the RSS’ English mouthpiece, the Organiser, published an article alleging that “the Left ecosystem, long accused of orchestrating ideological subversion,” has “repeatedly leveraged” international funding channels like the USAID to push “anti-national and anti-humanitarian agendas.”
“Under the guise of philanthropy and development aid, USAID has been instrumental in funding NGOs, media houses, and so-called activist networks that propagate narratives detrimental to India’s sovereignty and cultural fabric,” it said and highlighted media reports indicating Soros’ foundation received USAID funding.
Trump and Musk’s war on “leftist” NGO funding has coalesced with that of the Modi government and the RSS network.
Incidentally, fraternal organizations of the BJP and the RSS are registered as NGOs, many of which receive foreign funding, including from Hindu nationalists based in the United States.