"MoU with IFES had no financial or legal implication": Former CEC SY Quraishi on USAID funds to India
New Delhi, July 13
Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi on Monday asserted that the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Election Commission's India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems had "no financial or legal implication", rejecting allegations linking the agreement to the controversy surrounding USAID funding in India.
Speaking to ANI, Quraishi said the MoU, signed just 13 days before his retirement, was aimed solely at strengthening training programmes for election officials from other countries and did not involve any financial commitment by the Election Commission.
"When Donald Trump came for a second term, he set up a department to cut government expenditure and made Elon Musk its head. Among the expenditure cuts was funding to USAID, which supported one organisation called the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), with whom I had signed an MoU just 13 days before my retirement," Quraishi said.
Explaining the purpose of the agreement, he said the Election Commission had established the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM) to train not only Indian election officials but also election commissioners and senior officials from other countries.
"We said we would train them free of cost, but we had no resources to bring them to India or bear their stay. IFES agreed to bring those participants and bear those expenses. Secondly, they would provide technical support to customise the training programmes according to the election laws and systems of different countries. That was the entire purpose of the MoU," he said.
Quraishi emphasised that the agreement explicitly ruled out any financial or legal obligations.
"In that five-page MoU, it was very clearly written that there will be no financial or legal implication. In fact, I wrote it twice in the same document. If people had read the MoU, they would have seen that there was no financial or legal implication," he said.
The former CEC further said the agreement continued to remain in force after his retirement and had the support of successive governments.
"If this MoU was improper, the government could have scrapped it after I retired. Instead, it has continued. The present government and the Prime Minister have strongly supported IIDEM. When I was there, around 10 to 20 countries had undergone training. Today, representatives from 143 countries have been trained. It is a matter of national honour and prestige, and unfortunately, that is what has been brought into question," Quraishi said.
— ANI
Reader Comments
I understand the explanation, but signing an MoU with an organization funded by USAID just 13 days before retirement does raise some questions. Why the rush? Surely the timing could have been better. The EC should be more transparent about such agreements, especially when foreign funding is involved.
Good to hear the facts from Quraishi ji himself. The MoU clearly stated no financial or legal implications - he even wrote it twice! Our country's election management is world-class, and training others is a matter of prestige. People making baseless allegations should read the document first. 🇮🇳
This is exactly why we need more clarity from officials. The opposition is making it seem like something shady happened, but Quraishi's explanation makes perfect sense. IFES was bearing the cost of bringing foreign trainees to India - that's just logistics, not interference. Let's not turn everything into a conspiracy theory.
I'm not convinced entirely. Even if there was no financial commitment, why does our Election Commission need to collaborate with a US-based organization for training? We have the expertise ourselves. And the timing is suspicious - 13 days before retirement? Seems like a last-minute decision that should have been made earlier.
As someone from abroad, I can see this is a simple capacity-building initiative. India's Election Commission is admired globally for managing the world's largest democracy. Training officials from other countries is a soft power win. The USAID angle is being blown out of proportion - IFES works with many countries on election management.
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.