New Delhi, India — As India’s Parliament convened for its winter session in late November, the world’s largest democracy braced for heated exchanges between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition, led by the Congress party.
The northeastern state of Manipur is still burning, after more than a year of ethnic clashes that critics have accused the local BJP government of exacerbating; the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth has slowed down; and one of India’s richest men, Gautam Adani, is at the centre of a corruption indictment in the United States.
But the BJP has shifted its attention to a new target: George Soros, the Hungarian-American financier-philanthropist. The party has accused Soros of sponsoring the country’s opposition and backing Modi critics with the intent of destabilizing India.
The campaign against Soros has reached a fever pitch, with the BJP even accusing the US Department of State of colluding with Soros to undermine Modi. The party has posted on its social media accounts, citing an article by French media outlet Mediapart claiming that Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the State Department funded the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
The BJP has also targeted the Congress, including Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, for using the work of a group of investigative journalists funded in part by Soros’s foundation and the State Department to target the Modi government on questions related to the economy, security, and democracy.
The move has taken many analysts by surprise, as the US is one of India’s closest strategic allies. But some have suggested that the move is about domestic political posturing, aimed at aligning the Modi government with the incoming Trump administration’s insistence on how the “deep state” conspires to undermine democracy.
The criticism of Soros is not just about the billionaire, said Neelanjan Sircar, a political scientist at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). “Soros is an easy target: he represents a lot of money, he represents a position that is critical of Modi, and, of course, funds a lot of things,” he said. “But it is not about him as this abstract entity, for everybody to hate – rather, it is his alleged connection to a set of social and political actors that the BJP is trying to vilify within India.”
The Congress, however, has rejected suggestions that it is influenced by any foreign actor and has insisted that the BJP’s anti-Soros campaign is aimed at distracting the country from the Manipur crisis, India’s economic challenges, and the US indictment of Adani in an alleged bribery scheme.
As the debate continues, the anti-Soros narrative is spreading, with many Indian influencers pushing conspiracy theories about him. While the campaign has its roots in domestic politics, it also echoes right-wing movements globally that have targeted Soros, accusing him of sponsoring immigration and allegedly trying to destabilize countries.