Why Shashi Tharoor Gets it Wrong on the Trump-Modi Meeting; The Mystery of USAID Funding for Indian Elections Continues; BBC India and Its Directors Fined by Enforcement Directorate

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Tanweer Alam, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Seema Chishti, Sushant Singh, MK Venu, and Siddharth Varadarajan | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

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Over to Sidharth Bhatia for today’s Cable

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Snapshot of the day

February 24, 2025

Sidharth Bhatia

The $21 million in aid purportedly sanctioned by the US Agency for International Development for ‘voter turnout in India’ was going, President Donald Trump said on Friday, “to my friend Prime Minister Modi”. Trump – whose earlier remark that the $21 million may have been intended to “get somebody else elected” which the external affairs ministry found “deeply troubling” – went on to claim on Saturday that the administration of his predecessor had allocated $18 million to help New Delhi with elections. Meanwhile, the Washington Post said in a report that it “found no evidence that $21 million was due to be spent for voter turnout in India or for any other purpose”. PTI also finds that the Union finance ministry’s annual report for 2023-24 – its latest – makes no mention of USAID funding earmarked for voter turnout.

(Credit: Satish Acharya)

A BBC investigation into the 758 FIRs filed after the 2020 Delhi Riots reveals troubling results.