‘Entirely incorrect’: PM’s advisor Shamika Ravi says never received money directly from George Soros

Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) and economist Shamika Ravi called Congress leader Pawan Khera’s statement that she received a grant from Open Society Foundation funded by George Soros ‘entirely incorrect’. Ravi said that the foundation funded Indian School of Business (ISB) when she was an assistant professor but no money came directly to any faculty member.

Ravi’s response comes to Khera’s retort after the ruling BJP separately linked both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to George Soros, often criticised for trying to destabilise India. Khera, in his response to the BJP’s barrage on Congress’ links with Soros, said the PM’s advisor and secretary Shamika Ravi received a grant from the foundation funded by the US billionaire. “Will @PMOIndia remove her and institute an enquiry on what all she has done or is doing to ‘destabilise India’?” he asked.

Shamika Ravi said: “The statement below is entirely incorrect. In 2006/7 The Open Society funded ISB (for work on financial inclusion) - where I was an assistant professor teaching & researching on the topic. No money comes directly to any faculty member. 18 years later, I joined the EAC-PM. I have never been more proud of my work, my nation or my Prime Minister. Meanwhile in 2020, George Soros declares his anti-India designs and guess who swarm towards him?!” 

BJP’S ACCUSATIONS AGAINST CONGRESS

The BJP claimed a triangular nexus between George Soros, OCCRP that is funded by Soros's Open Society Foundation, and Rahul Gandhi to destabilise India. They quoted a French media report titled ‘The hidden links between a giant of investigative journalism and the US government’ on December 2 by Mediapart.

"A triangular nexus has emerged, comprising George Soros and his foundation in the US, along with certain American agencies. The other vertex of this triangle is a prominent news portal, OCCRP. Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, traitor of the highest order, represents the third angle of this triangle,” said Sambit Patra in a press conference.

Mediapart responded to BJP’s claims to condemn the “instrumentalisation” of the article by BJP to serve the party’s “political agenda and attack press freedom”. It said that “BJP wrongly exploited Mediapart’s article in order to spread fake news that we never published”.

The party then later accused Sonia Gandhi of having links with FDL-AP Foundation funded by the George Soros Foundation. The FDL-AP foundation, it said, has backed the view that Kashmir should be a separate nation. 
The party said that Sonia Gandhi is among the co-presidents of the organisation along with the likes of former Philippines President Corazon C Aquino, Nobel Laureate and ex-Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez and KDJ Peace Foundation Chairman Kim Dae-Jung, and honorary senior advisors like Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi, Anglican Archbishop of South Africa Desmond Tutu, former Soviet Union president late Mikhail Gorbachev, and former German president Richard von Weizsaecker.