Amid the USAID funding row, Congress accused the BJP of “anti-national work” by spreading “fake news from America” and asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister S Jaishankar remain silent on alleged insults to India by Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
However, the BJP dismissed Congress’ allegations and called Rahul Gandhi a “traitor,” accusing him of working with foreign forces to weaken India.
Congress general secretary in-charge Jairam Ramesh said, “BJP is a procession of liars and illiterates. The news about USD 21 million, on which the BJP and their bootlickers were jumping on, turned out to be fake. The USD 21 million in 2022 was not for ‘voter turnout’ in India, but for Bangladesh.”
The Congress leader said in a Hindi post on X that ever since the Trump administration’s DOGE said on February 16 that USAID had canceled the USD 21 million funding for “voting in India,” the BJP has been making fabricated allegations against the party.
“But now it is coming to light that this entire news is fake. When the money has not even reached India, then what would be the cancellation?” he said.
The Congress leader said the controversy revolves around two USAID grants listed by DOGE, which were routed through the Washington-based Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS).
He added that CEPPS was set to receive a total of USD 486 million from USAID, with DOGE mentioning that the funds included “USD 22 million for Moldova and USD 21 million for voter turnout in India.”
