A recent report by Disinfo Lab has accused Washington and Brussels actors of investing millions of dollars to influence Indian voters ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, aiming to shape the electoral outcome. The report, titled “The Invisible Hands: Foreign Interference in Indian Elections 2024,” alleges a coordinated effort by the US-based Henry Luce Foundation (HLF), George Soros’ Open Society Foundation (OSF), and French Indologist Christophe Jaffrelot (CJ) to sway Indian public opinion.
The 85-page report claims that as millions of Indians were casting their votes, a section of global media and academia engaged in a well-funded plot to influence their decisions. It suggests that Indian conduits may also have been part of this scheme. The report highlights that criticism of Indian institutions and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s human rights record peaked in the six months leading up to the election, which began on April 19 and concluded on June 1.
Christophe Jaffrelot: The Central Figure of Criticism
Christophe Jaffrelot, a prominent French Indologist and political scientist, is highlighted in the report as a key figure in disseminating anti-India narratives. The report alleges that Jaffrelot’s influence was particularly evident in Western media outlets, with French daily Le Monde prominently featuring his critiques. His writings reportedly extended to Indian media platforms, specifically targeting the elections with a particular agenda.
According to the report, one significant aspect of Jaffrelot’s influence involves the promotion of a “caste census.” This idea, included in the opposition Congress Party’s manifesto, is attributed to Jaffrelot’s research. In 2021, he published a report advocating for a caste census in India and subsequently wrote articles in Indian media, bringing the topic into public discourse, especially during the election season. The report describes this as a remarkable feat for an academic, underscoring his ability to shape public opinion on a large scale.
Jaffrelot is also accused of spreading a false narrative about the increasing “upper-caste dominance” within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The report claims that this theory, propagated through peer-reviewed publications, was part of a deliberate propaganda effort to open societal fault lines in India.
Henry Luce Foundation’s Role
The Henry Luce Foundation (HLF) is identified as a significant financial supporter of Jaffrelot and other academics involved in India-specific research. Established by Henry Luce, one of the founders of Time Magazine, HLF is said to have provided substantial funding for various projects related to Indian politics and society.
One of the key projects funded by HLF was Jaffrelot’s “Muslims in a Time of Hindu Majoritarianism,” which reportedly received $385,000 between 2021 and 2024. The foundation is noted for being staffed by many ex-US government officials and think tank members known to have connections with institutions close to the US establishment.
HLF’s funding extended to other projects as well. For instance, it supported the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University with a project titled “The Hindu Right and India’s Religious Diplomacy.” Additionally, the foundation provided $120,000 to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) for articles critical of Hindu nationalism and religious dynamics in India, including titles such as “Hindu Nationalism: From Ethnic Identity to Authoritarian Repression,” “Religion, Citizenship, and Belonging in India,” and “Religion-as-Ethnicity and the Emerging Hindu Vote in India.”
The foundation also provided Human Rights Watch (HRW) with $300,000 for a project to document religious violence in Asia, specifically Myanmar, Indonesia, and India. Furthermore, HLF funded research by anti-BJP academics in the US, including California-based activist Angana P. Chatterji and Audrey Truschke, an academic at Rutgers University.
George Soros’ Influence
The report also highlights the role of Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros and his charity, the Open Society Foundation (OSF), in spreading negative views about India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Soros is said to have sponsored Jaffrelot and Canadian-Indian activist Ricken Patel.
Between 2016 and 2022, Patel’s Namati Foundation reportedly received millions of dollars from OSF. In 2023, Patel began chairing the “Friends of Democracy” group, co-chaired by Soros’ son, Jonathan Soros. The group’s stated goal was to “fight against the ruling party” to save India, and it allegedly spread propaganda on topics such as Russian oil purchases by India, with its views closely mirroring those of the US government. Some of the funds received by Patel’s group reportedly reached Indian think tanks, including the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research (CPR), whose foreign funding license was cancelled in 2020.
Lok Sabha Elections were held in India from April 19 to June 1, 2024, across seven phases to elect all 543 members of the Lok Sabha. Votes were counted, and the results were declared on June 4 in which PM Modi led NDA Government was voted to power for the third consecutive time by 290 votes .
Out of a population of 1.4 billion, more than 968 million people, or 70 per cent of the total population, were eligible to vote. A record 642 million voters participated in the election, including 312 million women, marking the highest-ever participation by female voters.
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