Washington, Oct 21 (IANS) India’s street protests over electoral rolls are being amplified by groups and figures now under US congressional scrutiny over funding from American tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, though no evidence has emerged that they fund or direct the protests.
A Fox News Digital investigation by Asra Q. Nomani, published on Tuesday, said it had identified “101 organisations across 9 countries –including the US — that are coordinating, organising or amplifying protests in Europe.”
India appears twice in the report. It said Progressive International “explicitly grouped the current protests in France, Spain, India and Albania in an Oct. 16 briefing and asked how the ‘new rebellions’ could acquire organised political power.”
Its list also includes “Indian Alliance Paris — INTERNATIONAL / DIASPORA: France-based organisation connecting French and Indian protest messaging. Partnered with the People’s Forum in Manhattan.” The report does not argue that the network is driving protests in India.
Progressive International has also posted from Delhi. “We write from the barricades of Jantar Mantar, where the Government of India has deployed armed forces against citizens protesting mass disenfranchisement and defending their right to vote,” it said on X on October 12.
Vijay Prashad, who heads Tricontinental, paired the cities in an Oct 18 post: “Paris-New Delhi-Buenos Aires / Let fury have the hour, anger can be power.”
BreakThrough News covered the Indian protests on October 12, 13 and 16. On October 13, it reported that “‘Unparalleled and unprecedented’ police repression was seen in India this weekend.”
Fox said BreakThrough News, CodePink and the Party for Socialism and Liberation are “funded and supported by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon who lives in Shanghai.”
In July 2026, the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Jason Smith, subpoenaed BreakThrough News, Prashad’s Tricontinental and the People’s Forum. Smith led the House delegation that met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Mumbai this week.
In April 2025, Senator Chuck Grassley asked the Justice Department whether the People’s Forum and Code Pink should register as foreign agents, writing: “Evidence suggests that The People’s Forum and Code Pink have been funded and influenced by Mr. (Neville Roy) Singham and the communist Chinese government.”
The New York Post and CBS News have reported, citing unnamed sources, that a federal grand jury in Manhattan is investigating Singham. No charges have been filed, and the Justice Department has not confirmed the probe. The New York Times first detailed Singham’s funding network in 2023.
The documented links amount to coverage, amplification and solidarity.
The protests erupted over a voter-roll revision that, the Guardian reported, “has stripped 130m names from India’s electoral roll,” with protesters demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
A BJP spokesperson said the allegations over the revision had “no base, not an iota of evidence.”
Popular American singer Mary Millben last week posted a video on X in which, her post said, she “speaks on the protests in India, who’s funding the protests.” In another video post, she alleged that the George Soros group was behind this.
–IANS
lkj/sd/
