Deeply troubling, authorities looking into it: Centre on Trump's USAID fund claims

India Today

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has termed the claims 'extremely troubling' and said relevant departments are investigating the matter.

Transcript

00:00Alright, we are going straight across to this press conference, which is being held right now from the AMEA and this has got to do with the

00:06Allegations doing the rounds as far as the funding in India in USA funding is concerned listen in

00:30What you don't

00:32that you know

00:34the Jashankar

00:35Mr. Jashankar was briefed on the Riyadh summit and now we are seeing that there are some differences between Ukraine and the US administration

00:43So, how does India look at the normalization of relations between a step towards normalization of relations between US and Russia?

00:53So the second question is regard in regards to the meeting between the Brazilian foreign minister and Jashankar

00:59So was the threat of imposing tariffs on BRICS countries was that discussed during the meeting? Thank you, sir

01:09Okay, Keshav

01:13So, thank you, good evening Keshav from the print just associating with what was asked earlier

01:20When discussions with the Brazilian foreign minister took place as well as when he and Jashankar called upon the president of South Africa

01:28Was BRICS's future discussed given that the US President Donald Trump said that BRICS is dead and has been

01:36attacking the regional bloc at various levels over the last few months and

01:42Secondly continuing with the question of the meeting with Mr. Lathoff

01:46did India

01:48Take any position with regards to bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the table given the Riyadh summit did not have the participation of Ukraine

01:55Thank you, sir

01:59Sir, I am Prakash Dubey from New Zealand

02:01My question is

02:03I am living in America illegally

02:05The Indians who are being sent back

02:07Some pictures have been sent to Panama

02:09Who have been released

02:11What is the information about that?

02:13Secondly, the way they were sent before the military aircraft

02:15Many opposition parties in the parliament

02:17raised objections in the country

02:19There is also opposition to that

02:21So the Indian government said that they will talk to the US

02:23What is the information about that?

02:25Because even now the same kind of

02:27behavior is being used

02:29They are being sent back illegally

02:31Thank you

02:36Okay, Mr. Mukesh

02:38Look

02:40On the issue of USAID

02:42I have made you aware of it

02:44And

02:46It has been said that there are many

02:48Units in the Indian government

02:50that work with USAID

02:52There are many ministries

02:54So

02:56The ministries and agencies

02:58that work with USAID

03:00are looking at this issue

03:02So when we get an update

03:04we will share it with you

03:26Heartfelt condolences

03:28to the grieving family

03:30The government of India

03:32as you know, accords high priority

03:34to the

03:36safety, security and well-being

03:38of all international students in our country

03:40MEA has been in constant touch

03:42with the Odisha government

03:44and KIT authorities

03:48Going straight across to Shashank

03:50Mattu for more details on that

03:52Shashank, just give us the highlights

03:54What has now been said by the government

03:56by the MEA as far as the allegations

03:58of the USAID to India is concerned

04:00given the big bone of contention

04:02it has become in India

04:04What we are seeing

04:06is the Ministry of External Affairs

04:08saying that it has seen information

04:10that the United States government has put out

04:12regarding some of these activities

04:14about 21 million dollars being granted

04:16by the United States government

04:18to a consortium of US non-profits

04:20thanks to a voter turnout in India

04:22The Ministry of External Affairs

04:24until then had not commented on this matter before

04:26but then President Donald Trump got involved

04:28and said that in fact this may have been used

04:30to elect other political parties

04:32that the previous government in America

04:34did not want the return of the Modi government

04:36and therefore he insinuated

04:38this was political interference of some kind

04:40The Ministry of External Affairs has now responded

04:42and said that this is extremely troubling

04:44and has raised concerns about foreign interference

04:46in India's internal affairs

04:48The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson

04:50said that there are going to be relevant departments

04:52and agencies looking into the matter

04:54but they also said that it would be premature

04:56to comment at this stage

04:58because we have also seen a report

05:00this morning in some of the media

05:02stating that in fact the 21 million dollars

05:04never went to India, it went to Bangladesh instead

05:06and this was an error on the part of the United States government

05:08So at this point in time the MEA is quite right

05:10in saying that look, we need to get to the bottom of this

05:12but at this point in time the MEA says this is concerning

05:14so we don't want to make a premature comment

05:16at this point in time

05:18Shashank, in fact Shashank continues to be with us

05:24Shashank, you know I also want to ask you

05:26about the specific response of the MEA

05:30as far as the situation vis-a-vis

05:34the student from Nepal

05:36and the unfortunate death of the student

05:38is also concerned

05:40What has been the government's response?

05:42Yes, the Ministry of External Affairs

05:44has expressed its condolences

05:46for the death of Prakshri Lansal

05:48who was a 21-year-old student

05:50who passed away in Odisha

05:52of course after that we saw

05:54significant problems

05:56with how the university administration

05:58dealt with foreign students

06:00especially from Nepal

06:02Shashank, I'm just coming back to you

06:04in a second from now

06:06listening to what the MEA has had to say

06:08as far as the allegations of the UN aid is concerned

06:10On the issue of US aid

06:12what I wanted to say

06:14is that the UN has informed us

06:16and it has been said that

06:18there are a lot of units in the Indian government

06:20that work with the US aid

06:22there are several ministries

06:24so all the ministries

06:26and the agencies

06:28working with this

06:30are looking at this issue

06:32so when we receive an update

06:34we will share it with you

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