The Story of $21 Million

The political slugfest between the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] and Congress over American money in India’s electoral politics is anything but ludicrous. They are actually playing with the gallery. American interference in India’s internal affairs has a long history. How the first communist government in Kerala was toppled is known to everybody. The Gandhians are not saints as they pretend today. That the United States Agency for International Development [USAID] bribes politicians, journalists and persons having power to influence voters is an open secret. US President Donald Trump has once again questioned the USAID’s $21 million funding for voter turnout efforts in India—an allocation his administration has since cancelled. He also referred to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as his “friend” while elaborating the USAID funding. Reacting sharply, and quite expectedly, to Trump’s remark India’s foreign ministry described it as “deeply troubling” and expressed concern over potential foreign interference in India’s internal affairs. Then a spokesperson of foreign ministry said it was “premature” to make public statements about the matter at this stage and that relevant authorities were investigating it. As they cannot defend the indefensible they are simply avoiding the real issue.

In reality, the Trump-Musk engineered initiative to cut USAID funds include$ 486m in total for the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening”, with “$21m for voter turnout in India” and “$22m for inclusive and participatory political process in Moldova”. Surprisingly, the pro-establishment media houses in India are down-playing the gravity of the problem while one leading daily said in their so-called ‘investigative report’ that the ‘$21m was sanctioned for Bangladesh, not India’. All these exercises in escapism are aimed at diverting public attention.

Trump further pointed to another USAID grant–$29 million allocated to Bangladesh for “strengthening the political landscape”. It was also claimed that the funds were directed to a little-known firm with only two employees, casting doubt about the real purpose of the money. As there was no transparency it is not known whether it was utilised by the clandestine organisation to create chaos and political turmoil in Bangladesh, ultimately leading to the exit of Sheikh Hasina.

Not very long ago it was widely alleged that USAID was behind India’s first mass surveillance, mass spying and unending Census through 12-digit Aadhaar Number Online Database System. ‘India Digital Financial Inclusion: Journey Map Report’ [March 2019] by Mobile Solutions Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR) project of USAID refers to the Aadhaar and Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana scheme.

Not that the extent of USAID’s influence over the Union government is unknown to political parties. It issued draft amendments to the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020 to allow non-government entities to carry out Aadhaar authentication which was restricted to government actors only. The use of Aadhaar Number authentication by private entities under these rules goes against the Supreme Court’s judgement on the Aadhaar Number and Aadhaar Act which “limited the use of Aadhaar authentication, for a limited set of purposes, and only by the government”. The amendment empowering private organisations to do authentication was done, allegedly under the influence of USAID and its collaborators.

Caught in the cross-fire over the foreign funding issue, Congress is now demanding a comprehensive ‘white paper’ on USAID funds that political parties, NGOs, individuals and other organisations received. But a white paper is not going to eradicate evils plaguing the administrative apparatus.

India’s poll panel has not responded to Trump’s allegation, but former election chief S Y Qureshi denied receiving such funding during his tenure, which ran from 2010 to 2012. But BJP’s Amit Malviya claimed that in 2012, under Mr Qureshi, the panel signed an agreement with a group linked to George Soros’ foundation—primarily funded by USAID–to support a “voter turnout campaign”, albeit Qureshi dismissed the charge as malicious.

Back to Home Page

Frontier
Vol 57, No. 37, March 9 - 15, 2025