Bhaag Viru Bhaag
Senior Test Player
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2013
- Runs
- 27,388
Donald Trump himself, in a speech in Miami Wednesday, said: “Why do we need to spend $21m for voter turnout in India? Wow, $21m! I guess they were trying to get somebody else elected.”
SINCE the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced February 16 that it had “cancelled,” among a string of projects, USAID funding of “$21 million for voter turnout in India,” the ruling BJP has accused the opposition Congress of using alleged external influence in India’s election process.
Trump himself, in a speech in Miami Wednesday, said: “Why do we need to spend $21m for voter turnout in India? Wow, $21m! I guess they were trying to get somebody else elected.”
Facts show all may have jumped the gun.
That $21 million, records accessed by The Indian Express show, 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 Sheikh Hasina.
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, DC, 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. With Federal Award Identification Number AID117LA1600001 (an ID specific to the grant), this was to run until July 2026 and $13.2 million has been disbursed so far.
The Bangladesh political project
However, the USAID $21-million grant that DOGE flagged was meant for Bangladesh. Consider these:
* Each federal grant comes with a specific place of performance — the country where it is meant to be spent. According to the official open data source of US federal spending, there is no USAID funded CEPPS project in India since 2008.
* The only ongoing USAID grant to CEPPS matching the denomination of $21 million and the purpose of voting was sanctioned — with Federal Award Identification Number 72038822LA00001 — in July 2022 for USAID’s Amar Vote Amar (My Vote is Mine). This is 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).
BBC
