Congress counters BJP’s foreign funding allegations, calls RSS a ‘CIA puppet’

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party over its baseless allegations against it for receiving foreign funding through agencies like the USAID.

The party accused the RSS of having taken money from the CIA to destabilise the Congress governments led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

“The RSS has always been a puppet of the US,” party spokesperson and chairman of the AICC Media and Publicity Department Pawan Khera remarked while addressing a press conference here on Friday.

He also referred to the massive Ford Foundation funding for the Anna Hazare-Kejriwal-led protests in 2012 to destabilise the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.

$21 million USAID for voter turnout in India

The Congress spokesperson took a dig at the BJP government including its national security advisor Ajit Doval, over its baseless allegations of $21 million USAID for voter turnout in India. Referring to a newspaper report about the allegations being false, he asked Doval, what he doing if the USAID pumped $21 million into India. It is a slap on your face that you have been caught unawares, he told the government.

He pointed out, that this aid was actually sent to Bangladesh by the USAID. He asked, what were the IB and the RAW doing when the USAID pumped so much funds into a neighbouring country to destabilise the government there. He said he felt bad for 'PM Modi’s friend Gautam Adani' who suffered losses due to the regime change there, allegedly funded by the USAID.

'RSS received massive aid for its ‘cow protection’ protests'

Questioning the audacity of the BJP to accuse the Congress of taking foreign aid, Khera referred to the revelations made by a former CIA agent wherein he revealed that the RSS received massive aid for its ‘cow protection’ protests, whose actual aim was to destabilise the government-led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He said the RSS had even planned the murder of the then Congress president K Kamaraj.

The Congress spokesperson added that continuing with its relationship with the US, the RSS also took the US help to promote Jai Prakash Naryana’s movement against Indira Gandhi in 1974. He referred to the RSS leader Dattopant Thengadi and the RSS supported Subhramniam Swamy’s US visit during that time to support the JP movement.

Similarly, he said, the Anna Hazare-Kejriwal-led protests in Delhi in 2012 were funded by the Ford Foundation to destabilise the UPA government. He said the RSS and the Vivekananda Foundation were part of those protests.

Khera also questioned prime minister Narendra Modi’s ‘meek surrender’ before the US president Donald Trump during his recent visit where he had gone ‘uninvited’. He claimed that PM Modi was smiling, when Trump was slapping tariffs and insults on India.

He also revealed that union minister Piyush Goyal and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis have regularly met the USAID officials.

White Paper on funds on aid agencies

Khera said, the Congress will not keep quiet and it knows when to speak, where to speak and how to speak. Besides, he added, the Congress also knows how to take action.

He demanded that the government should bring out a White Paper about the funding by various aid agencies whether these funds had come properly or illegally and whether these had been used or misused. He said the Congress will soon come out with a ‘black paper’ and reveal everything. “Those living in Sheesh Mahal (glass houses) cannot throw stones at others, lest they end up finding no place to hide,” he warned the BJP.