Decode Politics: George Soros and the Nehru-Gandhis — what are BJP’s allegations against Congress leadership?

“The connection between George Soros and the Nehru-Gandhi family runs deep, extending beyond Sonia Gandhi’s role as co-president of the Forum of Democratic Leaders – Asia Pacific (FDL-AP). Fori Nehru, a Hungarian like Soros, was married to BK Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru’s cousin, making her the aunt of Rahul Gandhi… Soros is documented to have visited Fori Nehru and maintained extended correspondence with her,” the party said in a post on social media.

“Their association traces back to the time when BK Nehru served as India’s ambassador to the United States. This raises questions about the extent to which the Nehru-Gandhi family may have compromised India’s strategic interests, over the decades….” the BJP said.

Who is Soros and why is he under BJP fire?

Soros is a 92-year-old hedge fund manager and philanthropist who came under fire from the BJP soon after a Hindenburg Report in January last year accused the Adani Group of fraud, exploiting tax havens and manipulating stock prices. The allegations were rejected by the business group. As the BJP accused Soros of being behind the Hindenburg Report with the purpose of “destabilising” the Modi government, Soros said at an event that PM Modi was not a democrat and that the Adani row would damage him, thus helping the cause of democracy in India.

Months later, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) carried out an investigation claiming that “some foreign owners of publicly listed Adani Group stock are, in fact, fronts for its majority owners”.

The connection between George Soros and the Nehru-Gandhi family runs deep, extending beyond Sonia Gandhi’s role as co-president of the Forum of Democratic Leaders – Asia Pacific (FDL-AP). Fori Nehru, a Hungarian like Soros, was married to BK Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru’s cousin,… pic.twitter.com/Vb7DdVqftt

— BJP (@BJP4India) December 11, 2024

What has the BJP alleged?

The BJP has repeatedly accused the Congress leadership of conniving with George Soros’s foundation to “destabilise” the country and its economy, and has now also alleged the hand of the US “Deep State” in funding activities against India, a charge that the US Embassy has termed “disappointing”.

Last week, the BJP also seized on an investigation by Mediapart, a digital newspaper, on the OCCRP showing that both the US government and Soros were its funders. The investigation said the US government has a veto in the OCCRP top appointments, that it gives funds for specific investigations in countries like Russia, Malta, Cyprus and Venezuela, that the US considers an enemy, and that its funds cannot be used for investigative journalism in matters that are internal to the US. The OCCRP has contested Mediapart’s report.

Citing the Mediapart report, the BJP has accused Gandhi of raising the same issues as the OCCRP, and also claimed that a member of the Soros foundation took part in his Bharat Jodo Yatra. “They meet all the elements in foreign countries who want to break India,” BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has said.

However, while the BJP claims that the OCCRP’s coverage on Adani, the Pegasus surveillance app and Brazil’s 2021 suspension of import of Covaxin were immediately followed by Gandhi and the Congress raising the same issues, other media outlets had also raised the same. In fact, the Congress took up the Pegasus issue before the OCCRP reported on it.

Mediapart’s publisher and director Carine Fouteau has said that the organisation condemns the “instrumentalization” of its report on the OCCRP by the BJP “in order to serve the BJP’s political agenda and attack press freedom”.

What has the BJP separately accused Sonia Gandhi of?

The party has alleged that Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, is co-president of the Forum of Democratic Leaders in the Asia-Pacific (FDL-AP), an organisation that it has said is funded by Soros and advocates the independence of Kashmir.  BJP spokesperson and MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said at a press conference this week:  “FDL-AP is a non-profit organisation to promote democracy. There are four co-presidents, including Sonia Gandhi as chairperson of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. What is this forum saying? It says that democracy is getting over in India. Regarding Kashmir, it talks about prospects for peace, justice and independence in Kashmir, and interviews a member of a Pakistani think tank on the matter. The website says the financial support for this comes from Soros Foundation. George Soros is the same person who has put up 1 billion dollars to destabilise the Modi government.”

What does the FDL-AP website show?

While showing Sonia as co-president of the forum, the website lists the other three co-presidents as former Philippines president Corazon C Aquino, President of ‘The National Congress for New Politics’ Kim Dae-Jung, and former president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sanchez.

The website has a link — Kashmiri Independence: Key to Defusing The Indo-Pakistani Nuclear Standoff — in which a background write-up says, “Like all associations with boundless hopes and limited means, the FDL-AP is obliged to focus its resources on a few battles at a time. Although we are now working intensely on Burma, Cambodia, and youth education, we are of course also deeply concerned with the many other tragedies in the region. This section will therefore try to illuminate lesser known struggles in the Asian neighborhood, which are also committed to self-determination, human rights and social justice. Due to its length, body count and now nuclear aspects, we begin with the Kashmir conflict, but also invite your assistance to expose other movements which desperately require public attention and support.”

It also has multiple links, most of them pertaining to 1999 or earlier,  on Kashmir as further reading. On its website, the organisation says it is committed to promoting democracy in the Asia-Pacific and beyond, and adds that there are deep roots of democracy in ancient Asian philosophical traditions, offering Confucianism and Buddhism as examples.

The Congress has rejected the charges and said these are aimed at diverting attention from the Adani issue. “First, the BJP quoted a Mediapart report. They (government) also made allegations against the US State Department, which also said that this can adversely affect ties. But the king wants to save the parrot and provide it with ‘M security’,” said Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, alluding to Modi and Adani.