New Delhi

US President Donald Trump’s ‘revelations’ regarding the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funds, particularly his mention of $21 million allocated to India for voter turnout, sparked a political storm in the country, with the BJP and Congress engaging in a bitter exchange of barbs.

The controversy surrounding the US’ alleged attempts to influence electoral outcomes in India took a new turn on Friday when a leading daily reported that the $21 million referenced by Trump did not go to India but was, in fact, intended for Bangladesh.

This newspaper report, which contrasted sharply with Trump’s admission about the Biden administration's efforts to influence foreign democracies and decision-making, provoked strong reactions from the BJP. The party accused the newspaper of publishing a false story about ‘2022 funding to Bangladesh.’

Amit Malviya, the BJP's IT cell chief, claimed that the leading daily was covering up foreign interference through USAID-funded George Soros' Open Society Foundations.

Disputing the paper’s fact-check, Malviya said that the Indian Express article misrepresented the reference to the $21 million funding intended to ‘promote’ voter turnout in India.

“What the Indian Express sidesteps is the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Election Commission of India — under the leadership of S.Y. Quraishi — and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), an organisation linked to George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, which is primarily funded by USAID,” Malviya said in a post on X.

He also claimed that the report remained silent on subsequent funding, starting in 2014, under various categories aimed at interfering with India’s election process.

Malviya further remarked that details of this funding were once available through annual filings on the now-defunct website of the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS).

He argued that revelations about USAID were increasingly showing that the Congress-led UPA had systematically enabled the infiltration of the country’s institutions by forces working against India’s interests.

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He also noted that a certain section of ‘civil society’ was rattled by these secrets coming to light and suggested that more such attempts to discredit and deflect from the revelations would occur in the coming days.

It is noteworthy that the Donald Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had announced on 16 February its decision to ‘cancel’ the USAID funding to foreign nations. The US President has also expressed his views on potentially shutting down the agency and its operations.