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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi

Musk’s ‘Doge’ claim about USAid funds for India sets off political firestorm

Trump and Modi stand behind lecterns during a press conference
Narendra Modi and Donald Trump this month during Modi’s visit to Washington, where the Indian prime minister called Trump a ‘friend’ and Trump said Modi was a ‘great leader’. Photograph: Francis Chung/EPA

Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” has been accused of setting off a political firestorm in India after it claimed that the US government had been sending millions of dollars to support the Indian elections.

In a list published on Musk’s social media platform X last week, Doge, a special group that Donald Trump created, claimed that a $21m grant distributed by USAid – the US agency for international development – to help “voter turnout in India” had been cancelled, as part of the president’s sweeping cuts to foreign aid.

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