The US embassy on Saturday expressed disappointment over the BJP accusing the state department of funding news reports against Prime Minister Narendra Modi to destabilise India.

“It is disappointing that the ruling party in India would make these kinds of accusations,” the US embassy spokesperson said.

“The US government works with independent organisations on programming that supports professional development and capacity building training for journalists. This programming does not influence the editorial decisions or direction of these organisations,” he added.

The spokesperson was responding to the BJP accusing the state department and American deep state of trying to destabilise India.

The BJP had made these allegations on its official handle on X in the context of the
party’s campaign against the Congress in general and leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi in particular for taking up issues such as “Pegasus, Adani, caste census, ‘democracy in danger’, Global Hunger Index, religious freedom, and press freedom”.

Citing a report by French investigative media outlet Mediapart — which had run a series of reports on the Rafale controversy a few years ago — the BJP on December 2 posted on its X handle: “It has always been the US State Department behind this agenda. A French investigative media group, Mediapart, has revealed that OCCRP is funded by the US State Department’s USAID, along with other deep state figures like George Soros and the Rockefeller Foundation. In fact, 50% of OCCRP’s funding comes directly from the US state department. OCCRP has served as a media tool for carrying out a deep state agenda.”

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a global network of investigative journalists with staff members across six continents. Besides the European Union, four foreign ministries or their organisations — the US state department, France’s ministry of Europe and foreign affairs, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Sweden’s International Development Cooperation Agency — are institutional donors of the OCCRP, according to
its website.

Domestic politics apart, the BJP’s decision to target the US state department also appears to be an attempt to sidle up to the incoming Trump administration, which the Narendra Modi dispensation had wooed ahead of the 2020 US elections.

The Mediapart report cited by the BJP came out on December 2. Titled “The hidden links between a giant of investigative journalism and the US government”, the report makes no mention of India or Modi.

However, since the OCCRP has brought out articles on the Pegasus spyware and reports “targeting Adani”, the BJP has run a campaign all week inside and outside Parliament using the Mediapart report.