United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his administration’s decision to cancel the $21 million funds allegedly provided to a nonprofit organisation to support “voter turnout” in India.

“Why are we giving $21 million dollars to India?” Trump asked. “India has a lot of money. They’re one of the highest-taxing countries in the world. It’s hard for us to get in there because their tariffs are so high.”

He added: “I have a lot of respect for India, I have a lot of respect for the prime minister. He just left two days ago. But we’re giving 21 million dollars for voter turnout in India. What about voter turnout here? We’ve done that, I guess. We did 500 million dollars. It’s called the lock boxes.”

Trump made the comments at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida while signing an unrelated executive order.

On Sunday, the US Department of Government Efficiency announced that it had cancelled several international aid initiatives through the United States Agency for International Development “costing taxpayers’ dollars”. The Department of Government Efficiency is led by billionaire Elon Musk.

USAID is an independent agency that is mainly responsible for administering foreign aid and development assistance on behalf of the US government. Trump had on January 24 imposed a 90-day freeze on money distributed by the organisation pending a review by the US State Department.

The list of initiatives for which funding was revoked on Sunday included $486 million in grants to the nonprofit organisation Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening, including $21 million “for voter turnout” in India.

The consortium comprises three organisations – the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and The International Foundation for Electoral Systems – that support elections and political transitions globally.

It is funded by the USAID Global Elections and Political Transitions Program.

The Department of Government Efficiency did not provide further details, including the Indian entity or organisation that was allegedly meant to receive the grants.

Following its cancellation, Bharatiya Janata Party publicity chief Amit Malviya on Sunday called the funding an “external interference” in the election process in India and asked who was its beneficiary. “Not the ruling party for sure,” he claimed in a social media post.

“Once again, it is George Soros, a known associate of the Congress party and the Gandhis, whose shadow looms over our electoral process,” Malviya said in another post.

The ruling BJP has repeatedly claimed that the Opposition Congress was conspiring with Soros, a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist, to destabilise the Narendra Modi government.

Malviya alleged: “In 2012, under the leadership of SY Quraishi, the Election Commission signed an MoU [memorandum of understanding] with The International Foundation for Electoral Systems – an organisation linked to George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, which is primarily funded by USAID.”

The BJP leader was referring to the memorandum of understanding signed between the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and the Election Commission on May 17, 2012.

Following the allegations, former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi on Sunday rejected allegations that funding from USAID was used to help increase vote turnout when he held the post.

Quraishi, who headed the poll panel between July 30, 2010, and June 10, 2012, said that the allegations did not “have an iota of fact” and called them “false and malicious”.