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The Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP, which leads the coalition of parties currently in Government in India, has directly accused the US State Department of trying to "destabilise India". It also claimed that the US "deep state" is working to "target Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
In a press conference, the BJP spokesperson said, "It has always been the US State Department behind this agenda"
BJP CLAIMS THERE'S A NEXUS
Sambit Patra, the spokesperson of the ruling BJP, claimed that elements in the US deep state have colluded with a group of journalists and with India's opposition leader Rahul Gandhi to put a spoke in the wheel of India's growth story with unsubstantiated allegations and malicious reports without a "shred of evidence". He suggested at a press conference that all this is in conjunction with the "US State Department".
The BJP also slammed Rahul Gandhi for using reports by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project or OCCRP that "singularly focused" on targeting the Adani Group and its alleged closeness to the government to undermine PM Modi - all "baseless charges", and without a "shred of evidence".
The BJP spokesperson then cited a French media report that showed that OCCRP was funded by the US Agency for International Development and "other deep state figures" like George Soros. "The Deep State had a clear objective to destabilise India by targeting Prime Minister Modi," the BJP said.
It added that "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."
"A French investigative media group has revealed that 50% of OCCRP's funding comes directly from the US State Department," Mr Patra said.
The BJP spokesperson then accused Rahul Gandhi of being a "traitor of the highest order". He also said that "some agencies of America" and billionaire George Soros make a "dangerous triangle trying to destabilise India".
Sambit Patra's charge was then repeated by his party colleague Nishikant Dubey in Parliament. Mr Dubey accused the Congress of "conspiring with foreign forces" to derail the government because of their "hatred" for PM Modi.
Mr Dubey called for opposition leader Rahul Gandhi to be thoroughly investigated for meeting with controversial business tycoon George Soros, who he claimed "routinely conspires to derail economies of other countries" and American lawmakers like Ilhan Omar, who have strongly opposed Prime Minister Modi and his administration. "The Congress must answer... what transpired in meetings with those who have a history of peddling anti-India agenda on Rahul Gandhi's foreign tours," he said.
CONGRESS RESPONDS, DEMANDS APOLOGY
This resulted in a sharp reaction from the Congress, which called it the "most unfortunate incident". Congress MP Shashi Tharoor slammed Mr Dubey and his "outrageous statement".
"No 1, you cannot attack people in a defamatory manner. No 2, you cannot take anyone's name without giving them notice in writing in advance, and No 3, you cannot assault parliamentary privilege. He violated all those three rules and he was allowed to go on speaking and ranting for quite some time... so we objected to that. The House was initially adjourned. We went to see the Speaker and we said this has to be expunged from the record. The person must apologise," Mr Tharoor said.
OCCRP admitted to "some funding" by the US government. The media group said in a statement that it was an independent media outlet and not associated with any political party. "The US government, while providing some funding to OCCRP, has no say in our editorial processes and no control over our reporting," it said, according to a report in news agency Reuters.
The US State Department has not yet responded to these charges.