American singer Mary Millben and Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke exchanged barbs on Wednesday over allegations of foreign funding of the outfit, which has joined protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Millben alleged in a post on X that the CJP was funded by US donors opposed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged young Indians to organise peaceful protests against what she called the party’s “disruptive spirit”.
“These select donors have a pattern globally - target conservative global leaders, find a US-educated person from the country, radicalise them, send them back to the country, and fund them to start chaos and destruction,” she said, without providing evidence for the allegation in the post.
She also accused Dipke of lawlessness and urged him to meet Modi and use his education and talent to support the country’s development. Millben asserted that the prime minister had the backing of Indian citizens and said he would win again in 2029.
Dipke hit back, questioning why Modi was seeking support from Americans to discredit his fellow citizens and objecting to what he described as foreign interference in India’s internal affairs.
“Who gave foreign nationals the right to interfere in India’s internal affairs? We are more than capable of dealing with our own issues. We don’t need outsiders interfering in our country’s affairs,” Dipke said.
The exchange came amid protests by opposition parties and the CJP against the alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise and calls for Kumar’s resignation.
The controversy also drew reactions from BJP and Shiv Sena leaders. BJP MLA Ram Kadam accused Rahul Gandhi and the opposition of seeking to prevent the removal of alleged fake voters from electoral rolls. He cited Millben’s remarks about US donors and alleged that Dipke was attempting to create confusion in India after returning from the US.
Shiv Sena leader Shaina NC also questioned the sources of funding for political outfits and NGOs, asking whether foreign entities were financing groups seeking to challenge the Modi government.
Separately, US Representative Pramila Jayapal raised concerns over the SIR exercise, alleging that the Indian government’s actions could remove 130 million people from voting rolls. She compared the exercise with measures pursued by the Trump administration that she said undermined voting rights in the United States.
Jayapal’s remarks referred to the wider debate over voter eligibility and registration, including the proposed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act in the US Congress.
Millben, an African-American singer and actress known in India for performing the national anthem and the devotional song ‘Om Jai Jagdish Hare’, sang ‘Jana Gana Mana’ at an event in the US during Modi’s visit in 2023.
The allegations of foreign funding made by Millben and Indian political leaders were not independently substantiated in the material provided.
(With agency inputs from ANI and PTI)