The US Department of Government Efficiency under billionaire Elon Musk has come out with a string of spending cuts, which include USD 21 million set aside for "voter turnout in India." US President Donald Trump appointed Musk as the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last month.
Charged with streamlining governance and eliminating wasteful spending, the DOGE on Saturday made the announcement in an X post of axing several 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 grants that were included on the list are USD 486 million to the "Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening" which was USD 21 million for "voter turnout in India" and USD 22 million for "inclusive and participatory political process" for Moldova. There were no additional details of the funding shared in the post.
Responding to the post, senior BJP leader Amit Malviya labeled the grant as 'external interference' in India's elections. He asked who the beneficiary was, claiming that it was 'not the ruling party for sure'.
