BJP and Congress are disagreeing over Donald Trump’s comments about a $21 million fund for voter turnout. The BJP is criticizing Rahul Gandhi for his statements made outside the country.
A heated argument has started between the BJP and Congress over US President Donald Trump’s comments about a $21 million fund for voter turnout in India. On Thursday, the BJP tried to connect Trump’s comments with Rahul Gandhi’s 2023 statement, where he expressed concern about the lack of attention to protecting democracy in India. In response, the Congress asked the Indian government to release a report on the support given by US agencies to both government and non-government groups in India over the years.
Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad played audio clips of Donald Trump and Rahul Gandhi, who made comments in the UK in 2023, to criticize the Congress and its leader.
Prasad said that, “It is a matter of shame what the Congress has done. Rahul Gandhi has made a joke of Indian democracy abroad and sought help from democracies abroad. It means he sought support to help him win as the Congress keeps losing elections.”
Donald Trump mentioned his decision to stop USAID funding, saying, “Why do we need to spend $21 million for voter turnout in India? I guess they were trying to get someone else elected.”
The Congress called Trump’s statements about USAID “nonsense.”
Amid the $21 million controversy, attention shifted to Veena Reddy, the former India director for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), after BJP MP Mahesh Jethmalani questioned her involvement in the funding.
Mahesh Jethmalani posted on his X account that, “So, DOGE has discovered that USAID allocated $21 million for ‘voter turnout’ in India, a euphemism for paying voters to cast their votes to effect regime change. Veena Reddy was sent to India in 2021 (ominous?) as head of USAID’s Indian mission. Post Lok Sabha elections 2024 (presumably her voter turnout mission done), she returned to the US. Pity because investigating agencies here could have asked her some questions about who this money was given to for applying it to voter turnout operations,”
So #DOGE has discovered that #USAID allocated $21million for “voter turnout” in India ,a euphemism for paying voters to cast their votes to effect regime change. #VeenaReddy was sent to India in 2021 ( ominous?) as head of USAIDs Indian mission . Post #loksabha elections 2024 (…
— Mahesh Jethmalani (@JethmalaniM) February 16, 2025
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