NEW DELHI: Former chief election commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi dismissed claims that a US agency funded efforts to raise voter turnout in India, calling the reports “baseless” and “malicious.” His response follows an announcement by the US department of government efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, which claimed to have cancelled $21 million in funding for voter participation initiatives in India.
Quraishi clarified that during his tenure as CEC in 2012, the Election Commission of India (ECI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). However, he said that this agreement did not involve any financial commitments. “The report in a section of media about an MoU by 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 wrote on X.
He further explained that the MoU was similar to agreements signed with several other international election management bodies to facilitate training at the ECI’s Indian Institute of Electoral Democracy and Electoral Management (IIIDEM). “There was no financing or even promise of finance involved in the MoU, forget X or Y amount. The MoU in fact made it clear in black and white that there would be no financial and legal obligation of any kind on either side,” he said, adding that this stipulation was explicitly mentioned at two different places in the document to avoid any ambiguity.
Quraishi reiterated that any claims of US funding for voter participation in India were entirely false. “Any mention of funds in connection with this MoU is completely false and malicious,” he wrote.
DOGE, which was established under the Trump administration to oversee and cut government spending, recently announced a list of cancelled expenditures, including $21 million for “voter turnout in India.” The department claimed that US taxpayer dollars had been allocated to various international projects, including election-related activities in Moldova, Bangladesh, Nepal, and other regions, all of which have now been scrapped.
Reacting to DOGE’s announcement, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya alleged that such funding amounted to “external interference” in India’s electoral process. “$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 wrote on X.