The debate over the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s decision to cut expenditure for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), including a fund allocated for “voter turnout in India,” has spiralled into a heated exchange between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, with the latter questioning BJP leader Smriti Irani’s past association with USAID.
Congress leader and Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge pointed to Irani’s profile on a government website, which mentioned her role as USAID’s goodwill ambassador to India for a programme run by the World Health Organization (WHO). Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Kharge wrote, “According to the Government’s official website, Ms Smriti Irani’s bio states that she has served as the USAID ‘goodwill ambassador’ to India. Does this imply that BJP politicians are the real agents of George Soros?” Congress’ Pawan Khera also reacted to Kharge’s post, stating, “The actual agent of George Soros turns out to be @smritiirani.”
However, the BJP responded to the claims by Congress, clarifying that Irani was appointed as the goodwill ambassador from 2002 to 2005 owing to her popularity as an actress. The party further pointed out that the WHO campaign linked with Irani was endorsed by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) at a time when Congress’ Sheila Dikshit was Delhi’s chief minister.
“The WHO campaign featuring Smriti Irani was endorsed by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), among others, which permitted promotional material to be displayed on its buses. Sheila Dikshit was the Chief Minister of Delhi then, and Pawan Khera served as her personal assistant, handling trivial tasks like carrying her chappals and suitcase. Matters of actual significance, such as this campaign, were likely above his pay grade at the time,” BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya wrote on X.
The DOGE, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, has been tasked with identifying irregularities in US government spending. In its latest findings, it claimed that USAID had allocated $21 million for “voter turnout in India” as part of a broader $486 million grant to the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening.” In a post on X, DOGE stated, “US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all of which have been cancelled.”
Following this revelation, BJP leaders raised concerns over external interference in India’s electoral process. Malviya questioned the intent behind the funding, writing on X, “$21M for voter turnout? This definitely is external interference in India’s electoral process. Who gains from this? Not the ruling party for sure!” He also alleged that Congress had previously allowed foreign involvement in India’s election process by signing an MoU with The International Foundation for Electoral Systems in 2012, during the tenure of then-Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi. The organisation, according to Malviya, was linked to Soros’s Open Society Foundation, which is primarily funded by USAID.
Quraishi refuted these claims, stating that the MoU did not involve any financial transactions. “There was no financing or even promise of finance involved in MoU, forget X or Y amount. The MoU made it clear in black and white that there would be no financial and legal obligation of any kind on either side,” he clarified in a post on X.
The debate over USAID’s influence in India has also extended beyond electoral concerns. Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), raised apprehensions about USAID’s involvement in India’s medical and social policies.
BJP leaders have also previously accused the agency of funding protests in India. Former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated, “This shocking revelation that organisations like USAID were funnelling crores of rupees to organisations in India just confirms 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.”
Notably, despite the political outcry, the BJP-led central government has engaged in collaborations with USAID in the past. In January 2024, Union minister Piyush Goyal announced an MoU between India and USAID to support the Indian Railways’ goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030. Additionally, in 2022, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met with then-USAID administrator Samantha Power to discuss global development prospects, including food and energy challenges.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) earlier alleged that the BJP government’s demonetisation drive in 2016 was linked with USAID. “BJP is claiming that USAID was an anti-India agency. In Oct 2016, USAID partnered with Modi Govt to ‘drive cashless payments’. A month later, Modi did the disaster called demonetisation to ‘promote cashless’. Now, will BJP explain the mysterious ‘chronology’ behind this?” TMC MP Saket Gokhale wrote on X on Monday.
According to data from ForeignAssistance.gov, which shows US foreign assistance data to the public, USAID disbursed $120 million in India toward “Health and Population,” while in 2024, $80 million was allocated to the same sector.