New Delhi: Amid controversy over alleged funding by a US agency for raising voter turnout in India, the Congress on Monday said the party was against any foreign intervention in the democratic or electoral process in the country and asked the government to conduct a thorough probe.
Senior Congress leader and party treasurer Ajay Maken said the party condemns any kind of foreign intervention in the electoral process in the country and action should be taken against those involved.
"The Congress party is clear that any kind of foreign intervention in our democratic process or election process is unwarranted and not correct and we oppose it. It needs to be condemned and there should be a probe into it," he told reporters here.
Maken said as per reports, the money that is said to have come in 2012 should be thoroughly probed as BJP leaders were claiming that the ruling party would not have benefitted from such intervention, as the Congress was in power at the time.
"In 2012, if it is stated that money had come in, then the Government of India should conduct a probe and take action against those involved," he said.
In the last few years, a lot of money has come in the country and the government should hold a thorough probe into where that money went and came from, he said.
Former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi had on Sunday rejected a report that a US agency funding was used for raising voter turnout in India when he headed the poll body.
His reaction came after the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire Elon Musk announced a series of expenditure cuts, including USD 21 million allocated for "voter turnout in India".
The DOGE in a post on X on Saturday announced cancelling many programmes costing hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars. The department said, "US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all (of) which have been cancelled..."
The list included USD 486 million in grants to the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening including USD 21 million for "voter turnout in India".
"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 had said in a statement.
"There was no financing or even promise of finance involved in MoU, forget X or Y amount," he had said. Reacting to the post by DOGE, BJP leader Amit Malviya termed the grant an "external interference" in India's elections. He questioned who the beneficiary was, asserting that it was "not the ruling party for sure".
US President Donald Trump chose Musk to head the DOGE last month. Tasked with improving governance and curbing wasteful expenditures, the DOGE announced cancelling many programmes costing hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars.
