Know Who Is Venna Reddy & Why She Is Caught In $21 Million US Funding For Indian Polls Controversy

New York: Amid the war of words that has erupted between the BJP and the Congress over US President Donald Trump’s comments on the funding of USD 21 million for voter turnout in India, attention also turned to Veena Reddy.  But who is she? Reddy is former India director for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Her name cropped up in the matter after BJP MP Mahesh Jethmalani raised questions about her role in the funding.

“So, DOGE has discovered that USAID allocated $21 million for ‘voter turnout’ in India, a euphemism for paying voters to cast their votes to effect regime change. Veena Reddy was sent to India in 2021 (ominous?) as head of USAID’s Indian mission. Post Lok Sabha elections 2024 (presumably her voter turnout mission done), she returned to the US. Pity because investigating agencies here could have asked her some questions about who this money was given to for applying it to voter turnout operations,” said Mahesh Jethmalani posted on X.

Here’s more about Veena Reddy:

• An American diplomat, Veena Reddy was born in Andhra Pradesh
• Reddy is a career member of the US Senior Foreign Service. She has served as the mission director for the USAID in India and Bhutan. She was appointed in 2021, becoming the first Indian-American to lead USAID’s operations in these countries
• On July 17, 2024, Reddy said she was returning to the US more than a month after the Lok Sabha elections were announced, India Today reported
• Reddy held various positions within the USAID before her tenure in India, including mission director in Cambodia
• She also served as deputy mission director in Haiti, managing post-earthquake reconstruction efforts and economic growth initiatives
• Reddy’s academic background includes a Juris Doctor from Columbia University School of Law and both a master of arts and a bachelor of arts from the University of Chicago
• She had worked as a corporate attorney in New York, London, and Los Angeles

Here’s more about BJP Vs Cong war of words

The BJP on Thursday sought to link Donald Trump’s comments and Rahul Gandhi’s 2023 remarks apparently ruing lack of concerns abroad to protect democracy in the country. The Congress also demanded that the Indian government should bring out a white paper on the US agency’s support to both governmental and non-governmental institutions in India over the decades.

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad played audio clips of Donald Trump and Rahul Gandhi, who had made the comments in the UK in 2023. Prasad said, “It is a matter of shame what the Congress has done. Rahul Gandhi has made a joke of Indian democracy abroad and sought help from democracies abroad. It means he sought support to help him win as the Congress keeps losing elections.”