BJP member Nishikant Dubey on Monday alleged in the Lok Sabha that most of the organisations funded by USAID in India were striving to create unrest and break the country and had Congress links, triggering Opposition protests and an adjournment.
The US Agency for International Development is the US government’s main agency for humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Dubey’s allegations coincided with a move by the Donald Trump administration to close the agency — which it sees as pursuing a “woke” agenda — accusing it of waste and corruption.
Dubey broached the subject during Zero Hour, demanding the government probe these organisations and alleging they had staged protests on issues the Opposition had raised to target the Narendra Modi government.
As examples, he cited the protests against the Agnipath short-term military recruitment scheme and the demonstrations demanding a countrywide caste census. Dubey alleged that organisations receiving aid from USAID also backed the Maoists.
“US President Donald Trump has shut down USAID, which spent money only to bring down governments all over the world,” the MP from Godda in Jharkhand told the House.
USAID has not been shut down. Just hours before the Trump administration was set to suspend-with-pay or lay off the vast majority of the agency’s employees, a US court issued a limited, temporary order against the move on Friday evening.
“I want to ask, did USAID give ₹5,000 crore to George Soros’s Open Society Foundation to break up India or not? Did it give money to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation or not?” Dubey asked.
The Congress benches rose in protest, accusing Dubey of making unsubstantiated allegations. Congress member K.C. Venugopal raised a point of order, asking the Chair: “Why is the same person raising the same issue during Zero Hour?”
During the last Parliament session, Dubey had led the BJP in accusing the Congress of colluding with foreign forces, such as billionaire US philanthropist George Soros, to destabilise India. This was apparent retaliation for the Congress’s linking of Modi to Adani.
Presiding officer Sandhya Ray – a BJP member officiating in the absence of Speaker Om Birla – told Venugopal that points of order were not allowed during Zero Hour.
As Dubey continued levelling allegations against the Congress, claiming the head of its overseas outfit, Sam Pitroda, had received USAID funds, some Opposition MPs entered the Well of the House and began protesting. Amid the din, the Chair adjourned the House for an hour till 2pm.
Dubey later put out a post on X relating to his intervention in the House, while alleging that the “Congress has only worked to divide the country”.
“Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and many NGOs took money from USAID to benefit anti-national elements,” he said in the post.
BJP social media head Amit Malviya too posted Dubey’s allegations, saying the “issue of USAID funding trusts owned by the Gandhi family and individuals closely affiliated with the Congress raised in Parliament”.
Despite the temporary court relief, the USAID workforce and the aid industry that relies in large part on the agency’s funding are still acutely in limbo, The New York Times has reported.
The newspaper said the people who work for USAID had been on the front lines of efforts to fight famine, contain virulent infectious diseases like HIV and Ebola, and rebuild infrastructure in impoverished and war-torn countries.
Trump, a long-term critic of overseas spending, is in the middle of a cost-cutting drive.
