Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu on Thursday called for India to decline all forms of foreign aid, following reports that USAID had allocated millions of dollars for electoral processes in the country. “India should decline all foreign ‘aid’ as a matter of principle. This policy is also good for US (and Western) taxpayers,” Vembu said in a post on X.
Vembu’s remarks come after former US President Donald Trump questioned the Biden administration’s decision to allocate $21 million to “increase voter turnout” in India. Speaking at the FII Priority Summit in Miami, Trump said, “Why do we need to spend $21 million on voter turnout in India? I guess they (Biden administration) were trying to get somebody else elected. This is a total breakthrough.”
Trump went on to assert that India is financially strong and among the “highest-taxing” countries in the world.
The controversy erupted after the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, announced the cancellation of several international funding programs, including the $21 million earmarked for voter turnout efforts in India. The decision was part of a broader rollback of US-funded initiatives, including $29 million for “strengthening the political landscape” in Bangladesh, $39 million for “fiscal federalism and biodiversity conservation” in Nepal, and $47 million for “improving learning outcomes in Asia.”
Recently, economist Sanjeev Sanyal called USAID “the biggest scam in human history.” In a post on X, he wrote, “Would love to find out who received the US$21mn spent to improve ‘voter turnout in India’ and the US$29mn to ‘strengthening political landscape in Bangladesh’; not to mention the US$29mn spent to improve ‘fiscal federalism’ in Nepal.”
Reacting to Trump's remarks, Sanyal sarcastically wrote: "Voter turnout in national elections in India 66%, US 59%. So, naturally, USAID needs to encourage voter turnout in India."
The DOGE has been put in charge of overseeing workforce reduction across the government, and as part of that, Musk announced that he would shut down USAID, which is responsible for humanitarian efforts around the globe.