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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the State Department and “deep state” elements in the US of trying to destabilize India in conjunction with a group of investigative journalists and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.
The accusation comes as a surprise as New Delhi and Washington have forged a strong relationship in the last two decades and both have vowed to further strengthen ties despite some differences and irritants.
Gandhi’s Congress party used the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)’s articles that “singularly focused” on the Adani Group and its alleged closeness to the government to undermine Modi, the ruling party said on Thursday.
Group chair Gautam Adani and seven others were indicted last month in the US for being part of a $265 billion scheme to bribe Indian officials — allegations the group has termed “baseless”.
OCCRP’s articles have also accused state-sponsored hackers in India of using Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to target government critics.
The government has previously denied both allegations.
The BJP has previously accused Gandhi, the OCCRP, and 92-year-old billionaire financier-philanthropist George Soros of attacking Modi.
On Thursday, it cited a French media report that said that OCCRP was funded by the US Agency for International Development and “other deep state figures” like Soros.
“The Deep State had a clear objective to destabilize India by targeting Prime Minister Modi,” the BJP said in a series of messages on X.
“It has always been the US State Department behind this agenda…OCCRP has served as a media tool for carrying out a deep state agenda,” it said.
Sambit Patra, a BJP national spokesperson and lawmaker, repeated the accusations at an official media briefing by the party.
The State Department, US AID, Soros, and the Congress party did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Indian foreign ministry also did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling party’s accusation against the State Department.
