Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 21: India has expressed concern over the US president Donald Trump’s revelation of an alleged election interference bid in India using USAID $21 Million fund. The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday said the information that has come up was “troubling” and stressed that the agencies were looking into the matter.
This comes a day after Trump claimed that the previous Biden administration allocated the fund under USAID to India to “get somebody else elected” in the country. The MEA said that the revelations have raised concerns over interference in the internal affairs of the country.
“We have seen information that has been put out by the US administration regarding certain USA activities and funding. These are obviously very deeply troubling. This has led to concerns about foreign interference in India’s internal affairs. Relevant departments and agencies are looking into this matter.
“It would be premature to make a public comment at this stage, so relevant authorities are looking into it, and hopefully we can come up with an update on that subsequently,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a weekly press briefing. Jaiswal said several agencies in India work with USAID and the Ministry was waiting for further details on the matter.
Mr Trump on Thursday had repeated his criticism about $21 million in United States government funding for India – via global aid agency USAID in 2012 – for ”voter turnout” calling it a “kickback scheme” and declaring, “What the hell do I care about it? We got enough problems (of our own).” The US President did not, however, elaborate on the allegation or offer proof.
Trump, addressing a gathering of state Governors from his Republican Party, declared, “Can you imagine all that money going to India? I wonder what they think when they get it. Now, it is a kickback scheme… you know… they kick it back to the people that send it…” “I would say in many cases, many of these cases, anytime you have no idea what we’re talking about, that means there’s a kickback because nobody has any idea what’s going on there,” he rambled on, also questioning grants of $29 million to “strengthen the political landscape” in Bangladesh.
“What the hell do I care about? We got a lot. We got enough problems… and all of this is terminated. We terminated this stuff and we’re on the track. And by the way, there were so many others I could have I could read all night long, but so many were so terrible,” he declared. Trump had also asked why the US taxpayers’ money had been used for India’s voters..”
Mr Trump’s remarks – and there have been many, including accusing predecessor Joe Biden of “trying to get someone else elected” (in last year’s Lok Sabha election, which the BJP won) – were picked up to attack Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for comments in the UK before the 2024 poll.
In May 2023 Mr Gandhi, speaking at an event in London, called on the US and European nations to recognise that “a huge chunk of the (global) democratic model had come undone.” The BJP launched a furious counterattack accusing Mr Gandhi of insulting the country abroad.
On Friday morning, picking up Mr Trump’s “kickback” comment, the BJP’s Amit Malviya and Pradeep Bhandari claimed the money had been used to sustain “deep state assets” in this country, and accused Mr Gandhi and “the Congress ecosystem” of being the beneficiaries of the $21 million.
In an X post Mr Malviya said, ” A day after US President Donald Trump spoke about $21 million being sent to India for ‘voter turnout’, he has reiterated the charge… essentially this money is also used to sustain deep-state assets who work to defend and deflect such revelations.”
Mr Bhandari said, “Donald Trump, for the second time, has said $21 million has gone to ‘voter turnout’… called it a ‘kickback scheme’. An investigation is a must to find out if Rahul Gandhi and the Congress ecosystem were beneficiaries of this kickback scheme!” Neither Mr Gandhi nor the Congress have responded so far.
The BJP has also linked the funding row to frequent target George Soros, claiming money was routed, via USAID and his philanthropic organisations, to publish ‘anti-India’ narratives that were amplified by the Congress, particularly before elections, to defame it and the country. The Congress has emphatically denied the BJP’s charges and demanded a detailed investigation, a White Paper, tracking USAID funds to India and its use in the country.
The DOGE – the agency auditing several government agencies in the US and cutting wasteful expenditure – posted last week that they identified $486 million to the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening,” including $22 million for “inclusive and participatory political process” in Moldova and $21 million for voter turnout in India.”
The BJP and the Congress have been sparring furiously since Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a contentious body headed by billionaire Elon Musk, cancelled USAID funding to India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, as well as many African nations, citing cost-cutting measures. DOGE is responsible for investigating irregularities in the US humanitarian funding during the Biden administration.
Both the ruling BJP and the Congress termed Mr Trump’s revelations as an “external interference in India’s electoral process.” But the ruling BJP said in 2012, “Congress-led UPA systematically enabled the infiltration of India’s institutions by forces opposed to the nation’s interests.” Meanwhile, Congress said only the BJP gained from it.
Congress leader Pawan Khera hit back the BJP’s Amit Malviya, who attacked the opposition party over the $21 million grant; “This definitely is external interference in India’s electoral process. Who gains from this? Not the ruling party (the BJP) for sure!” he said. Mr Khera’s response pointed out that in 2012, when the grant was allegedly made, the Congress (at the head of the United Progressive Alliance) was in power, not the BJP.
“… in 2012, when the Election Commission got this funding from USAID, the ruling party was the Congress. So, by his logic: Ruling party was sabotaging its electoral prospects by getting this so called ‘external interference’. And the opposition (BJP) won the 2014 election because of Soros/USAID.” Not just Mr Malviya but BJP’s Nalin Kohli also asked Congress “Why would any US agency wish to give $21 million for election-related work in India? Would that not amount to interference in India’s electoral process?”
The then Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, who led the poll panel from July 2010 to June 2012, refuted the claims by the BJP leaders and said, In 2012 there was a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) similar to those the poll body had signed earlier and still entered into, and were meant to train resources ahead of elections. “Any mention of any funds in connection with this MoU is completely false and malicious,” he said.
BJP’s Pradeep Bhandari alleged that the majority of the USAID funding went to NGOs linked to Rahul Gandhi and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. “This is why when US President Donald Trump revealed that the majority of $21 million was for ensuring that there is somebody else apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi being elected, it is evident that the pattern was to get Rahul Gandhi in power. Rahul Gandhi was in touch with foreign powers in order to create democratic instability,” he added.
The DOGE also said another $29 million was slated for “strengthening the political landscape in Bangladesh” – a country that witnessed a massive political change last year when sitting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power through a student-led revolution and putting Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus in her place. Ms Hasina alleged that foreign powers were behind the uproar in Bangladesh that forced her to flee her country.
Investigation by some media houses, however, revealed that the mentioning of India having received the $21 million USAID for “voter turnout” in 2012 was erroneous as the matching aid was found to have been allocated for elections in Bangladesh in 2022. Media reports said the records showed that $21 million was sanctioned in 2022 for Bangladesh, not India.
Of this, $13.4 million has already been disbursed, ostensibly for “political and civic engagement” among Bangladesh students in the run-up to the January 2024 elections and projects that put a question mark on the integrity of these elections — seven months before the ouster of the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.
At the centre of the dispute are two USAID grants on DOGE’s list that were channelled via the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS), a group based in Washington, which specialises in “complex democracy, rights and governance programming.”
CEPPS was meant to receive a total of $486 million from USAID. This corpus included, as per DOGE: $22 million for “inclusive and participatory political process” in Moldova; and $21 million for “voter turnout in India.” The first was awarded to CEPPS in September 2016 to “promote” an “inclusive and participatory political process” in Moldova.
The only ongoing USAID grant to CEPPS matching the denomination of $21 million and the purpose of voting was sanctioned was in July 2022 for USAID’s Amar Vote Amar (My Vote is Mine), a project in Bangladesh.
In November 2022, the purpose of this grant was modified to “USAID’s Nagorik (Citizen) Program”. A USAID Political Processes Advisor in Dhaka confirmed this on social media while on a US visit in December 2024: “The USAID-funded $21 million CEPPS/Nagorik project… which I manage.” Meant to run for three years until July 2025, this grant has already spent $13.4 million, records show.
Between July 2022 and October 2024, this $21-million grant was split into six sub-grants: two each for three CEPPS member organisations International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES); International Republican Institute (IRI); and National Democratic Institute (NDI). IFES is based in Arlington, Virginia; IRI and NDI have their headquarters in Washington, DC. Campaign material and social media posts show how some of these sub-grants were spent in Bangladesh.
On September 11, 2024, a month after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster on August 5, the Micro Governance Research (MGR) program of the University of Dhaka and MGR’s director associate professor Aynul Islam posted two near-identical messages under the header “It’s Not Suddenly ‘Spring’! “Hello Bangladesh 2.0”, the posts credited “544 youth events and programs in the university campuses across Bangladesh” organised in two years since September 2022 “to promote youth democratic leadership and civic engagement that directly reached 10,264 university youth through 221 action projects and 170 democracy sessions, among others!”
Islam clearly acknowledged that “all these were possible with the generous support and partnership from the IFES and USAID Bangladesh under the #Nagorik program.” Islam is a Senior Consultant (Civic and Youth Engagement) with IFES. In December 2024, he became the founding director of Applied Democracy Lab (ADL), established at the University of Dhaka “with the support from USAID and IFES,” according to Islam.
On January 8, 2025, days before it was wound up, USAID Bangladesh had posted on Facebook: “Excited to partner with the University of Dhaka to unveil the new Applied Democracy Lab (ADL).” Mr Islam has also confirmed that USAID funded the Nagorik programme through CEPPS.
On the cancellation announced by DOGE, he said: “This is a setback but the lab is within the university setup and we are hopeful it will continue.” Asked about his LinkedIn post on the impact of USAID’s Nagorik program in setting the stage for political change in Bangladesh, Islam said: “It may not be right to directly link the two. I played a small role on behalf of IFES in creating democratic awareness among students but the main component of the Nagorik program was carried out by IRI, and also NDI (member organisations of CEPPS that received the funds).”
After visiting NDI headquarters in Washington DC on December 2, 2024, USAID’s Political Processes Advisor in Dhaka Lubain Chowdhury Masum, in a post on LinkedIn, confirmed the $21-million USAID commitment: “Although NDI does not have an in-country presence in Bangladesh, it is one of the three prime partners, along with IRI and IFES, under the USAID-funded $21 million CEPPS/Nagorik project. NDI… participated in the Pre-Election Assessment Mission (PEAM) and the Technical Assessment Mission (TAM) in Bangladesh under the CEPPS/Nagorik project, which I manage.”