Ex-Poll Body Chief Rejects DOGE's $21 Million For 'Voter Turnout In India' Claim, Says 'Not An Iota Of Fact'

Elon Musk-led United States Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Saturday announced a series of expenditure cuts, including a $21 million US tax payer-funded grant under former President Joe Biden's administration to influence "voter turnout in India". Reacting to this, former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi on Sunday rejected the report which said US funding was utilised to raise voter turnout in India and stressing that it has "no iota of truth" to it. 

What DOGE Claimed

In a post on X on Saturday, DOGE announced that it has cancelled several programmes that costed hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars.

"US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all (of) which have been cancelled," the department said.

The list included $486 million US grants to the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening, which mentioned $21 million allocated to "voter turnout in India".

US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all which have been cancelled:
- $10M for "Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcision"
- $9.7M for UC Berkeley to develop "a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills"
- $2.3M for "strengthening…

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 15, 2025

Ex-Poll Body Chief's Reply

The former poll body chief Quraishi said that the report about an MoU by the ECI in 2012, the time when he was the CEC, "does not have a iota of fact", PTI reported.

"The report in a section of media about an MoU by the ECI in 2012, when I was CEC, for funding of certain million dollars by a US agency for raising voter turnout in India does not have an iota of fact," Quraishi said in a statement.

Instead he said that an MOU with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) IFES in 2012 was in place when he was the CEC. He said it was like the ones the EC had with several other agencies and Election Management Bodies for the facilitation of training for desirous countries at ECI's training and resource centre India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM).

"There was no financing or even promise of finance involved in MoU, forget X or Y amount," he added.

Quraishi,who headed the poll panel from July 30, 2010 to June 10, 2012, also said the MoU in fact clearly stated that there would be no legal and financial obligation of any kind on either side.

"This stipulation was made at two different places to leave no scope for any ambiguity. Any mention of any funds in connection with this MoU is completely false and malicious, " he said.  

BJP Spokesperson Amit Malviya Reacts 

BJP leader Amit Malviya also reacted to the post by DOGE, calling the grant an "external interference" in India's elections. Questioning who the beneficiary was, he asserted that it was "not the ruling party for sure".

The BJP's IT department head, in a post on X, said: "USD 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 further hit out at the Congress, claiming that the now cancelled programme by DOGE was signed under the UPA government in 2012, which he said "enabled infiltration of Indian institutions by those forces who oppose nation's interest and seek to weaken India at every opportunity".

Once again, it is George Soros, a known associate of the Congress party and the Gandhis, whose shadow looms over our electoral process.

In 2012, under the leadership of S.Y. Quraishi, the Election Commission signed an MoU with The International Foundation for Electoral… https://t.co/PO13Iyroee pic.twitter.com/gdgAQoDbPh

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) February 16, 2025

ALSO READ:  Congress Demand Railway Minister's Resignation After Delhi Stampede Kills 18