New Delhi: Internet is agog with questions about Veena Reddy, former India director for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), over alleged funding of $21 million to increase “voter turnout in India”. Veena Reddy came into focus after BJP MP Mahesh Jethmalani demanded an investigation into the funding and questioned her role. His criticism was followed by President Donald Trump’s comments indicating that the fund could have been used to influence the Lok Sabha poll results.

“I guess they (USAID) were trying to get someone else elected. We have got to tell the Indian government,” Trump told a gathering on Wednesday.

Veena Reddy, an Andhra Pradesh-born American diplomat, joined USAID’s India office on August 5, 2021. She announced her return to the US on July 17, 2024 – more than a month after the results for the Lok Sabha elections were announced.

On the 2022 Independence Day, Veena Reddy said her late grandfather participated in the Quit India Movement and was jailed as a result. “I am moved and inspired by the legacy of the many brave souls who stood for freedom,” she posted on X.

Before joining the US government as a foreign services officer, Veena Reddy was a corporate attorney in New York, London, and Los Angeles. She holds a doctor of jurisprudence from Columbia University School of Law and an MA and BA from the University of Chicago, the US Embassy announced at the time of her arrival in India.

She has also served in USAID missions in Pakistan, the Central Asian Republics and Central America. Reddy has also been a member of bar councils of New York and California.