This time, it is the dragon that is slaying St George in the clash between the BJP and the Congress. George Soros’s buccaneering habits came to the fore in 1992 when he bet on the British pound, made a USD 1-billion profit, and brought the British economy to its knees. This time, the target of the 94-year-old Hungarian-American tycoon, investor, philanthropist and liberal political activist is Narendra Modi and his government. Saffron scuttlebutt is amplifying a propaganda storm by accusing Soros of doing the same to the Indian economy in cahoots with the Congress. Though his targeting has flopped so far, it has succeeded in setting the narrative and disrupting parliament for almost a week.
Soros controls an estimated USD 25-billion-plus that includes assets of six Open Society foundations: the Open Society Institute, Foundation for an Open Society, Open Society Fund, Soros Fund Charitable Foundation, Soros Economic Development Foundation and the Fund for Policy Reform. His personal wealth alone is over USD 8 billion. The cause of the current political turmoil in India is the disbursal of over USD 18 billion in grants given by his foundations.
Open Society is not an open-and-shut case. Soros has invited BJP’s wrath with his continuous interference in India’s domestic affairs and vicious personal attacks on Modi. A super-active market player deploying millions to make billions, his modus operandi is to oblige ruling parties in countries where he does business. The Congress, its old leaders and many retired civil servants have enjoyed his hospitality and facilities to promote their international agendas.
The Soros model is transparent. He establishes Open Society foundations in places he thinks are closed societies, to disrupt the socio-political ecosystem. China, Russia and Turkey have been among his previous targets. Since India’s Congress-led governments and Soros were ideologically compatible, the brazen businessman rarely targeted its leaders. Instead, he used his charitable entities to co-opt them at various international forums. The BJP has called out Sonia Gandhi as an office bearer of one such forum.
In parliament last week, the ruckus between the BJP and the opposition took a Soros-ful turn. The BJP countered the Congress fusillade against Adani by alleging Soros was the opposition’s inspiration. The charge was led by party president J P Nadda: “Soros donates billions of dollars to destabilise this country, the Congress becomes his puppet, raises his voice and destabilises the country. It should be condemned. The country wants to know what is Sonia Gandhi’s relationship with Soros.” Nadda was supported by numerous party colleagues who stormed social media platforms with Soros’s Gandhi parivar connections.
The Congress did not lie back and take it. Pawan Khera, its national spokesperson, parried, “I pose the following questions to the prime minister: Will you seek the resignation of S Jaishankar? Will you demand the resignation of Shamika Ravi? Will you ask for the resignation of R N Ravi, the governor of Tamil Nadu? Further, will you initiate an investigation into how these individuals may have collaborated with external forces to destabilise India? What harm have they caused to the nation’s interests? These individuals are in close proximity to you. They have allegedly received funds from George Soros, used to destabilise our country. We await your response.” Khera claimed Jaishankar’s son is associated with George Soros foundations through organisations such as the Aspen Institute and German Marshall Fund, a charge that was refuted.
Soros launched a tirade against the Modi government and BJP soon after their second mandate in 2019. At the World Economic Forum in January 2020, he expressed, “Nationalism, far from being reversed, made further headway. The biggest and most frightening setback came in India, where a democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship.”
Since then, he is accused of inciting protests using institutions, individuals and lawmakers with liberal funds to continuously berate Modi. In February 2023, while speaking at the Munich Security Conference, his primary targets were Modi, Xi and Erdogan. He used the Adani controversy to docket the PM: “Modi is silent on the subject (Adani), but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and parliament.”
Projected as a saviour of democracy by his admirers and the institutions he finances, Soros has predicted the Adani episode would “significantly weaken Modi’s stranglehold on India’s federal government and open door to push for much needed institutional reforms... I may be naive, but I expect a democratic revival in India.” To his utter disappointment, India voted Modi back to Raisina Hill for the third successive time with minor bruises.
Aggrieved by his cheek, the BJP and its supporters have blasted Soros on social media. The most acerbic broadside came from Jaishankar. He told a conference in Sydney last year: “[Soros] is old, rich, opinionated and dangerous because what happens is when such people, such views and such organisations—they actually invest resources in shaping narratives.” Jaishankar felt Soros was funding various institutions to “go about their agenda”. The foreign minister knows the Washington ‘swamp’ better than others, having been the Indian ambassador there.
The BJP found coincidental similarities between issues raised by the opposition and the Congress after Soros laid down the basic toolkit. Saffron netas and Modi connected the sudden surge in personal attacks and the violent farmer’s protests to Soros-ised institutions and individuals. The fact that prominent celebs and social activists, who are direct or indirect beneficiaries of his largesse, were seen walking with Rahul Gandhi during his yatras gave the BJP ammunition to join the dots.
The crafty billionaire’s disruptive decisions coupled with his ‘liberal’ ideology provided enough leverage to the BJP to lambast the Gandhi parivar. Soros’s Open Society foundations massively fund likeminded individuals across the globe. BJP sources say the government has already collated information about them in India. The progeny of some retired and active civil servants, and political leaders have studied in Ivy League institutions at Soros’s expense. They are, in fact, the hidden foreign hand and must be called out. A large number of Indian think tanks—led by retired army generals, academics, civil servants and even corporate leaders—are pushing Sorosnomics and politics through research projects, seminars and conferences.
Legitimising Soros’s power to shake or make governments is political exaggeration. Using conspiracy theories about facilitating regime change reflects the weakness of a party or leadership. Modi is India’s undisputed leader. He has survived many foreign hands in Gujarat and Delhi. It will take many more Soroses and many decades to inflict even a scratch on Indian polity. With Soros's name parroted ad nauseum, he is getting more affirmation and attention than he deserves. Soros is known as ‘the man who broke the central banks of England and Thailand’. But his ultimate failure to break Modi’s vote bank and India is Soros’s sorrow—the lost dream of a rogue moneybag packed with tainted money.
Prabhu Chawla
prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com
Follow him on X @PrabhuChawla