'Who received this money?': Rajeev Chandrasekhar demands probe into $21 mn USAID funding in India

Former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday slammed USAID over its funding allocations in South Asia, including $21 million intended for increasing voter turnout in India. Describing the expenditure as a "smoking gun of interference", Chandrasekhar said it undermines democratic nations under the guise of promoting democratic values.

"Shocking that on one hand, there is a discussion on democratic values, and on the other hand, there is brazen undermining of democratic nations," he said in a post on X. Referring to the $486 million allocated to the "Consortium of Elections and Political Process Strengthening," he added, "$29 million (300 crores) to Bangladesh for ‘strengthening political landscape’— translated to mean overthrow a democratically elected PM. $21 million (200 crores) for ‘voter turnout in India’ — whose voters, for whom? Who received this money?"

"It reinforces the belief that almost all these ‘protests’ had external funding/forces and puppetmasters behind it. I hope we investigate the money trail in India fully and who did what with the USAID money," Chandrasekhar said.

The US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Sunday revealed that several international aid programs — including the $21 million earmarked for increasing voter turnout in India, $29M to strenghening political landscape in Bangladesh, and $20M for fiscal federalism in Nepal — had been canceled.

Economist Sanjeev Sanyal also criticised USAID for the $21 million allocation for voter turnout in India. "Would love to find out who received the US$21mn spent to improve ‘voter turnout in India’ and the US$29mn to ‘strengthening political landscape in Bangladesh’; not to mention the US$29mn spend to improve ‘fiscal federalism’ in Nepal. USAID is the biggest scam in human history," Sanyal said.

BJP's Amit Malviya said that this USAID's funding was definitely an "external interference in India’s electoral process". "$486M to the 'Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening, including $22M for "inclusive and participatory political process" in Moldova and $21M for voter turnout in India. $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 said.