Uncle Sam wanted us to come out & vote?

Chartered accountants are the rage in Washington DC ever since the DOGE brigade took to doing some super-jugaad of their own. Led by cutlass-wielding Elon 'Jack Sparrow' Musk and boss-follower Donald 'Hector Barbossa' Trump, the two have slashed the overgrown, overblown jungle that's been USAID. Critics of the slash'n'burn, which have made the likes of McKinsey cry in awe and envy, are horrified. The same folks who once identified the 'United States Agency for International Development' as a euphemism to spread 'Yankee propaganda' are now decrying US unwillingness to spread its soft power. The latest ping to land on the India table is the US Department of Government Efficiency claim that (1) $21 mn was to be spent for 'voter turnout in India', and (2) the current administration has nixed that funding.

America's 'interest' in increasing voter turnout in India is cute. Even if we doubt that the funding was to go to what it was supposed to be spent on - phone messages from well-wishing NGOs asking us to go out and vote? Banners and buntings saying, 'Swipe right on Democracy - Cast Your Vote!' or 'Vote Like Your Wi-Fi Password Depends on It'? - the fact that aliens were investing in our voting patterns and won't be any more should make us doubly chuffed. It turns out we're interesting to them. But that interest can't be translated into influence.